Virtual Systems – Actual Objects: Rendition of Morphosis'

Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s

Denis Derycke (denis.derycke@ulb.ac.be)
AlICe lab, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.

Originally published in Virtual + Actual: Process and Product of Design, Ithaca NY: Cornell University, 2018.

Abstract
This essay speculates about some possible conceptual systems upstream to Morphosis’ complex and sophisticated projects and
artifacts from the 1980s. The demonstrative complexity those objects display is mysterious but appealing as well: the forms
and geometric marks they bear are a call for speculation about how they were engendered. Therefore, the goal of this essay is
to decipher some of the enigmatic compositional contrivances involved in two unbuilt Morphosis projects in order to recreate
– or to invent – some possible virtual process that could have generated the actual products. Eventually, this research offers
renditions of some of those virtual systems by giving them shape through new graphic objects. As this research is driven
primarily by graphic production. Except the photographs, all the illustrations presented in this essay are from the author.

Keywords
Architectural analysis, architectural theory, graphic representation, conceptual models, Morphosis, 1980s.

1. Morphosis in the 1980s demonstrating. However, just like Peter Eisenman's

In the mid 1980s, Los Angeles based architects Morphosis
developed design strategies guided by the collision and the
overlapping of several independent compositional systems.
Only a few projects from that period were built; most of
them existed mainly through models and drawings, but also
through conceptual artifacts. Those projects and artifacts
demonstrated a paroxysm of geometrical complexity as
well as refinement in graphic production: two distinctive
features that would grant to Morphosis international
recognition at that time. Focusing on the definition of an
abstract and consistent architectural universe rather than on
a potential presence in the embodied world, models,
drawings, and artifacts were not meant to be a substitute of
built architecture, they literallywere architecture. Most of
Morphosis' projects from that period became iconic as a
result of the significant media coverage they received.
They are now considered part of architectural history, as
some of their drawings and models belong to the MoMA
collection or other prestigious institutions.
2. Virtual systems – actual objects: Indexical
architecture
Unlike Peter Eisenman'sHouses of Cards, which were
systematically published with numerous explanatory
diagrams and many critical essays, Thom Mayne and
Michael Rotondi, the founding partners of the agency,
presented their projects without – or with very little –
explanation. They were not prone to develop theoretical
essays sustaining their architectural thought. They adopted
rather a more intuitive approach, considering that their
extensive production itself embedded its implicit theory. As
a result, the intricate graphic objects they conceived
appeared cryptic and mysterious, yet very appealing, taking
into account the great sensation of consistency as well as
the systematic design patterns their creations were
Houses of Cards, the Californians’ productions were
revealing numberless architectonic traces (alignments,
cutouts, fragments, insertions, excavations, etc.) referring
to some abstract geometrical principles from which the
projects seemed to originate.
By those architectonic traces, both Eisenman's and
Morphosis' projects bearssigns of their design process. In
the New Yorker'sHouses, this concept ofsign in
architecture is particularly relevant. No extensive semiotic
development will be undertaken in this essay, yet it is
necessary to explain what kind of sign Eisenman's Houses
are about. The semiotician and philosopher Charles
Sanders Peirce (1838-1914) differentiates three categories
of signs (Atkin, 2013):
- The icon, which is a sign that refers to its object through
a relationship of resemblance or analogy.
- T h e symbol, which is a sign that refers to its object
through a relationship of convention.
- The index, which is a sign that refers to its objects in the
form of a trace, as a consequence mentioning its origin.
Accordingly, theindex cannot exist without itsobject. In
Eisenman's Houses, the index is the category of sign that
connects the materiality of architecture to its conceptual
realm.
Published in the iconic monographHouses of Cards
(Eisenman, Krauss, & Tafuri, 1987) , Eisenman's essay
Misreading differentiates thephysic from the metaphysic of
architecture; the actual construction from an architectural
intention he later simply callsarchitectureitself. Further in
the text, Eisenman states that construction becomes
architecture only if it witnesses a “sign of architecture”
(Eisenman, 1987), meaning that the material entity of the
embodied world should explicitly refer to the virtual
geometrical concepts it stems from. In the same book,

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.1/10
Rosalind Krauss' essayDeath of a Hermeneutic Phantom:
Materialization of the Sign in the Work of Peter Eisenman
explicitly formulates that anactual-virtual duality can be
observed in theHouses (Krauss, 1987). She mentions that
two projects – one virtual and one actual – are transparent
to each other and coexist in the same space. Through
specific formal contrivances, through architectonic
elements with no other function than supporting this design
strategy, theactual project bears material traces, or
indexical signs, of the virtual project. In Eisenman's
Houses, those indexical signsare also pointing out a design
process made of a finite series of successive diagrams
where the project gets more complex at each stage of the
procedure.
If the origins of the architectonic traces were clearly stated
in Eisenman'sHouses, they were never made explicit in
Morphosis’ projects, yet they seemed based on a similar
rigorous logic. In Morphosis’ projects in the late 1980,
through various redundant bays, through systematic
repetition of elements, through beams and columns with no
structural function, or even through singular architectonic
fragments, one can perceive clues of a complex
overlapping of rhythms and other geometrical systems: an
unveiled abstract universe upstream to the projects and
their related conceptual artifacts. Therefore, the hypothesis
of this essay is to apprehend those clues and speculate
about what possiblevirtual systems Morphosis'actual
objects are the indexes of. To do so, this research process
temporarily relieves Morphosis from its authorship status;
Figure 1. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis.
Photo: Tom Bonner – www.tombonnerphotography.com
Figure 2. Malibu House Drodel (1986) – Morphosis.
Photo: Tom Bonner – www.tombonnerphotography.com
Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB)
it appropriates the objects of a small corpus of study – the
Malibu House (1986) and the Reno House (1987), and
their related conceptual artifacts – in order to interpret
them, in order to extract some architectural principles that
those projects could convey, but that Morphosis never
made explicit. Based on graphic means, that approach can
follow logical tracks, or lead to deliberate interpretation,
yet it remains based on a rigorous process. The final
purpose is to turn some enigmatic designs into a didactic
process that conveys explicit architectural knowledge, and
therefore to reveal the consistency of Morphosis' design
strategies through that small corpus of study.
3. The corpus of study: Malibu and Reno Houses,
and their drodels
Designed in 1986, the Malibu House was supposed to take
place on a small lot located on a narrow beach along the
Pacific Coast Highway connecting Los Angeles to Malibu.
Anchored to the gentle slope of the beach by pilasters
recalling a pier, the house is made of two main volumes
ending with a deck oriented towards the oceanFigure
( 1&
5). The Reno House was conceived in 1987 and was meant
to be erected on the top of a hill in the Great Basin Desert
next to Reno, Nevada. Unified by a curved roof, this
fortress-like project is made of different intersected
volumes disposed around a courtyard and a swimming
pool. Two massive walls made of stone penetrate the main
spaces of the house and extend the rocky nature of the site
inside the dwelling F( igures 3 & 8). Neither the Malibu
Figure 3. Reno House (1987) – Morphosis.
Photo: Tom Bonner – www.tombonnerphotography.com
Figure 4. Reno House Drodel (1987) – Morphosis.
Photo: Tom Bonner – www.tombonnerphotography.com
p.2/10
Figure 5. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: 3D models of the
project and its related drodel.
Figure 6. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: 3D model of the unreal-
ized drodel.
Figure 7. Malibu House (2006) – Morphosis: 3D model of the alter-
native design.
House nor the Reno House was ever built. Nonetheless,
they were a pretext for the production of multiple graphic
documents, even after the clients canceled the commission.
Presented in numerous publications, each project was
revealed mainly by a sophisticated model and a conceptual
artifact calleddrodel. The drodel is a Morphosis invention.
It comes from the contraction of the terms drawing and
model. A drodel is a conceptual artifact that connects those
two graphic techniques. It lays flat orthographic
Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB)
Figure 8. Reno House (1987) – Morphosis: 3D models of the project
and its related drodel.
Figure 9. Reno House Drodel (1987) – Morphosis: 3D model of the
unrealized drodel.
projections of a project (plans, elevations, sections), gives
them thickness, and recombines them in 30'' a by 40'' (75
by 100 cm)rectangle shaped model made of wood fibers
(Figures 2, 4, 5, 8, 6 & 9). A drodel describes the project,
but not in a figurative manner; it rather describes the
projects conceptual origin as both the project and the
drodel stem from the same geometric realm (Derycke,
2016).
The published material constitutes a first version of the
corpus – two artifacts per project – with which it becomes
possible to proceed to the upcoming investigation. In order
to have some material easy to handle for the operational
phases of this research, all those objects were 3D modeled.
Since this research benefited from an access to Morphosis
archives, the corpus of study was extended to some design
options that were abandoned and never published. Those
forgotten experimentations are very interesting as they
convey information about the abstract systems under study.
Therefore, on the basis of detailed sets of drawings found
in the archives, two unrealizeddrodels – one for Malibu
(Figure 6) and one for Reno F( igure 9) – were 3D modeled
and actually built for the purpose of this work. In addition,
the corpus of the Malibu House was augmented with a
p.3/10
model of an alternative version of the projectFigure
( 7) –
unpublished, but on display in Morphosis offices –
designed and built in 2006 for the sole purpose of an
exhibition. That last item was also 3D modeled. In
conclusion, a collection of four artifacts for Malibu and
three for Reno is available to investigate the virtual
systems of each project through the observation of the
indexical signspresent in all thoseactual objects.

4. Virtual systems: Rhythms

Rhythms are paramount in Morphosis' architecture.
Constructivist architect Moïsseï Iakovlevitch Guinzbourg
(1892-1946) defines two types of rhythms (Guinzbourg,
2010):
- The active and dynamic rhythm, which arises through the
memories that we have of the previous instances of an
event, and for which time is an essential component:
each new occurrence turns up according to a uniform
interval, only when the previous one has already
disappeared.
- The static rhythm, which one can observe in graphic arts,
in which the new element adds to the previous one, not
only in our mind, but in the actual space. The static
rhythms emerge then by the simultaneous existence of
elements.
Rhythms have always been present for multiple purposes
in architecture. For example, the vertical structure (the
columns) of almost every construction is organized
following a regular pattern. What makes the specificity of
Morphosis is that the elements organized by rhythmic
patterns are not just perceptible; they are ostensible, they
are meant to witness a geometric idea that goes way
beyond the limits of the project. Morphosis’ designs are
scattered with formal devices that are organized according
to redundant spacing: prominent architectonic fragments or
marks resulting from a subtractive process (bays or cut-
outs). And taking measurements of those spacing reveals
whole numbers in feet.
The observation of the architectonic fragments and other
geometric traces present in the Malibu House unveils its
rhythmic pattern. The left volume of the house is organized
following an 8 and a 16 feet rhythmFigure ( 10 – #1), and
the right volume following a 10 feet rhythmFigure ( 10 –
#2). The 8 and 10 feet rhythms are syncopated, yet they
find a common alignment every 20 feet. Some parts of the
project are also organized following secondary local
rhythms. A generic rhythmic pattern can be drawn out of
those observations F( igure 10 – #1 & #2), and the
architectonic fragments associated to the various rhythms
can be isolated as the generic pattern goes through the
project (Figure 10 – #3, #4, #5, #6, #7). The adjustment of
the length of the generic pattern's lines to the size of their
a s s o c i a te d a r c h i te c t o n ic f r a g m e n ts d isc l o s e s a
representation of the influence of every rhythm present in
the Malibu House. Arhythmic signatureof the object turns
up, which is also anactualized version of the generic
pattern, according to this instance of the projectFigure ( 10
– #8).
The original drodel of the Malibu House can be understood Figure 10. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: original house design
as another actual instance of the same generic pattern. rhythms, and associated architectonic fragments.

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.4/10
 Even more than the project itself – due to the abstract
nature of that artifact – it also displays fragments, marks,
and other rhetoric elements that explicit the rhythms.
Therefore, the same process as the one previously applied
to the house can be undertaken: the 8 and 10 feet generic
rhythms (Figure 11 – #1 & #2) are deployed through the
drodel and adjusted according to the size of their
corresponding architectonic fragmentsFigure
( 11 – #3, #4,
#5, #6 & #7). If similarities with the previous signature can
be spotted, the various rhythms also unfold differently,
occupying more space on the width. A new rhythmic
signature comes out F( igure 11 – #8): a secondactualized
version of the original generic pattern, showing new
potentialities of the conceptual systems that generated the
geometric realm of the Malibu House.
The very same process can be set on the alternative version
of the project designed in 2006 (Figure12) as well as on
the alternative (and unrealized) version of the Malibu
H ouse drodel (Figure 13). If those last processes were
completed in the wider research, from which this essay
presents an excerpt, they will not be detailed here, due to
their systematic nature. Only the results of such analysis –

Figure 12. Malibu House (2006) – Morphosis: alternative design

rhythms, and associated architectonic fragments.

Figure 11. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: original drodel Figure 13. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: unrealized drodel
rhythms, and associated architectonic fragments. rhythms, and associated architectonic fragments.

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.5/10
the two newrhythmic signatures – will be taken into
account in the description of the global virtual system that
generated the project and its related artifacts.If processed
similarly, the Reno House's model and its two drodels
unveil 2, 7, 14, and 28 feet rhythms in one direction, and
some subdivisions of a 14 feet rhythm in a second
direction, perpendicular to the first one (the generic
rhythmic pattern is visible inFigure 18). Again, those
process will not be detailed in this essay; only the results
will be considered to support the outcome of this research.
As we have seen, hr ythmic signatures can be extracted
from the geometric traces – or theindexical signs– present
in two versions of the project and two versions of the
drodel of the Malibu House. Thoserhythmic signatures
constitute a first level of virtuality, and the generic system
they all stem from, a second level of virtuality.
T h e virtual generic system this research exposed for the
Malibu House was based on the understanding of the actual
products. But now that the virtual system is settled, one can
look upon the actual-virtual duality the other way around.
One can consider that four times, in four actual artifacts,
the Malibu House's generic rhythmic pattern was
actualized, and was differentiated in each actualization,
according to a specific context. Each of those
actualizations induced specific instances – or rhythmic
signatures. They allowed to discover different aspects and
potentialities of the generic system Figure
( 14 – #1) that
become manifest if one align the fourrhythmic (Figure 14
– #2, #3, #4 & #5). Now that the virtual system is settled,
and that actualization process have been observed in four
instances, one can imagine that the system could engender
a fifth, a sixth, a seventh instance, and so on. Starting from
an analytical point of view, the unveiled virtual system of
the Malibu House has now a generative capacity.

5. Actual systems: architectonic fragments

Rhythmic signatures are connected to theindexical
geometries – traces and fragments – through which they
become perceptible. In other words: once isolated, those
indexical geometries compose theactual body of the
virtual rhythmic systems(Figure 10 – #9, Figure 11 – #9,
Figures 12 & 13), they expose a rendition of the project
wherein the bounding volumes disappear at the advantage
of some singular and sculptural elements. Those elements –
o r architectonic fragments– are paramount in Morphosis'
architecture.Architectonic fragments are self-consistent
and autonomous formal entities that take part to the global
composition of the architectural object. In the 1980s, Thom
Mayne and Michael Rotondi systematically inserted such
fragments in their designs. Fragments were placed on
prominent instances of the projects' rhythmic systems so as
to stress those systems, or some specific compositional
nodes. In addition to supporting the expression of the
indexical nature of the projects, architectonic fragments
were also referring to the generic architectural and urban
landscape of Los Angeles or other Californian boroughs.
Fragments were metaphors, like bits and pieces of the city
inserted in the project and connecting this last to its
surrounding.
Figure 14. Malibu House (1986 & 2006) – Morphosis: virtual
generic system actualized according to four artifacts.

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.6/10
Unlike Peter Eisenman’sHouses that are completely
disconnected and dismiss any contextual considerations,
Morphosis worship the generic American landscape the
same way Robert Venturi, Denise Scott-Brown, and Steven
Izenour were interested in the architecture of the Las Vegas
Strip (Venturi, Scott-Brown & Izenour, 1972). Therefore,
the conceptual status of the architectonic fragments is
twofold; they respond to internal and external logics. On
the one hand, they are a witness of the inner indexical
nature of the projects, and on the other hand, they are a
bond to an outer universe. In terms of theoretical
alignment, fragments are bothWhite and Gray.
The set of sculptural entities that the rhythmic systems
have brought out in the two models and the two drodels of
the Malibu House also appears as some consistent
compositional system around which the architectural
project, or the conceptual artifact, takes place. Those
systems can also be considered abstract or conceptual, yet
they are no longervirtual but actual. As they take place in
the embodied world, the systems have acquired some sort
of materiality in the geometry of the artifacts.

6. Coexistence of systems: Architectonic layers &

phenomenal transparency
Two types of systems have been isolated: virtual
a one –
composed of a generic rhythmic pattern transformed into
four rhythmic signatures, and anactual one – made of
indexical geometry: the traces and fragments isolated,
offering a singular rendition of the artifacts devoid from
their volumes and surfaces. At this point, the understanding Figure 15. Reno House (1987) – Morphosis: architectonic layers and
of Morphosis' compositional principles this essay advances subtractive operations.
was solely focused on thoseindexical elements. It is now
time to reconsider the matter by taking into account the
completeness of the project's geometry and, therefore,
expose a third type of compositional system that includes
the volumetric scheme of the architectural object. This new
investigation will be carried out only on the Malibu and
Reno Houses' models, not on their relateddrodels.
In the 1980s, Morphosis' projects volumetric schemes were
composed of aggregations and intersections of platonic
forms – primarily boxes and cylinders – disposed mainly
perpendicularly, with a clear articulation between them so
the scheme appeared perfectly readable. The two first types
of systems, the rhythms and their related actual traces,
were hosted by that third system constituted of the main
shapes of the project. All those systems were overlapping
in the three dimensions, composing a series of
architectonic layers: some specific compositional systems
organizing a set of components of the same nature.
Simultaneously deployed in the entire space of the project,
Figure 16. Malibu House (1986) – Morphosis: architectonic layers
Architectonic layerswere twofold: they tended to manifest and subtractive operations.
their own specificity while they also strengthened the
whole composition. they procee de d to subtract operations: cutouts,
In consequence, Morphosis' composition strategy can be intersections, carvings, excavations, perforations (For
understood as an endeavor for allowing the coexistence of example: Figure 15 – #1: cutout, #2: perforation, #3:
a great set of elements of various natures in a common excavation;Figure 16 – #1: cutout, #2: intersection, #3:
universe. Consequently, Mayne and Rotondi stripped the perforation). The geometry of the removed parts was
architectonic layers – mainly the ones constituted of usually aligned on the virtual systems, on the fragments, or
volumes – of some of their parts so as to make other on the limits defined by the intersections of the main
architectonic layers visible, or even manifest. To do so, volumes of the project. Most of the time, the removed parts

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.7/10
Figure 17. Malibu House (1986 & 2006) – Morphosis: virtual sys- Figure 18. Reno House (1987) – Morphosis: virtual systems actual-
tems actualized in four artifacts. ized in three artifacts.

Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB) p.8/10
disappeared; sometimes they were placed next to the space
they left empty, like a mobile element of machinery.
Referring to the seminal essay from Colin Rowe and
Robert Slutzky, it is considered that the Californian
architects turn the project into an object that demonstrates
phenomenal transparency(Rowe & Slutzky, 1963): every
compositional system, everyarchitectonic layerparticipate
in the creation of a superior compositional system – the
project itself – without destroying each other, without
losing their consistency. Even when intricate in a very
sophisticated formal scheme, each system remains
identifiable as a primary element. Once defined as
phenomenally transparent, the Malibu and Reno Houses
become the pureactual expression of the manifoldvirtual
systems and strategies that have engendered them. It is
now clear that just like Eisenman'sHouses, they bear
geometric traces of their – unstated – design process.
7. Graphic rendition of the virtual systems
At this point, this essay has highlighted some
compositional systems that the artifacts under study seem
to enclose. Those systems are renditions, as they have
never been made explicit by Morphosis. Nonetheless, their
consistency has been debated and validated, since this
research was discussed with both Thom Mayne and
Michael Rotondi.
Identifying the generic rhythmic pattern, the rhythmic
signatures, and their related actual geometry has led to a
first type of representation/interpretation of the upstream
virtual systems that generated four artifacts for the Malibu
House, and three for the Reno House. To conclude this
investigation driven by graphic means, this essay will
progress a step further in the interpretation process by
advancing a second type of graphic rendition of the virtual
systems. This rendition aims at summing up the various
potentialities of a generic system in a singular universe.
To do so, the new representation gathers in the same
graphic space, with the same referent of spatial origin, the
indexical geometry of all the artifacts related to a project; it
concentrates in a unique representational entity all the
actual fragments linked to the various rhythmic signatures,
so as to create a new artifact Figures ( 17 & 18).
Consequently, this new graphic object provides its own
original description of its related generic systemFigures
( thought.
19 & 20). This new and very dense description probably
lacks clarity in comparison to the previous ones that were
dissociated, but it offers a new rendition of the original
score with new compositional schemes; it explores and
extends the complexity and the consistency of the
architecture of the original project; it exposes an
interpretation of the project while offering its own
spatiality. In a way, those new artifacts attune with the
original objects – models anddrodels – and contribute to
depict and document the architectural thought that
produced them 30 years ago.
8. Rigorous speculation
When Roland Bathes declaresThe Death of the Author
(Barthes, 1977), he does not signify that every writer
should disappear once his last text is achieved. Instead, he
Rendition of Morphosis' Compositional Principles in the mid 1980s – Denis Derycke (ULB)
means that the author should concede to his works an
autonomous status. According to Barthes, the author is not
the ultimate bearer of the meaning of his texts, and trying
to decipher the author's work according to an assumption
of what he meant is futile. The author produces writing; the
author, however, does not produce meaning. Meaning is
the reader's task. It is the reader's task to confront the text
to his personal cultural background and sensitivity to
explore the “multi-dimensional space” (Barthes, 1977,
p.146) the text contains.
As authors, Thom Mayne and Michael Rotondi produced a
work that suits very well the French theoretician's
approach. This is strengthened by the fact that Morphosis
did not provide theoretical material to understand their
projects, drawings, or conceptual artifacts. The only
material to appreciate is no more than their actual
production, theirarchitectural writing. Mysterious because
of their complexity but appealing because of their
ostensible consistency, Morphosis' projects are a pretext to
speculate, a reason to explore themulti-dimensional space
– or the virtual universe – thoseactual objects conceal.
Those notions of speculation and exploration characterize
the very approach of the research detailed in this essay.
This reading of Morphosis' Malibu and Reno Houses and
their related conceptual artifacts is definitely interpretive,
yet it also seeks rigor, it seeks to build knowledge by a
process driven by a clear, traceable, and recurrent
methodology.
The graphic production presented in this essay aims at
contributing to the comprehension of Morphosis'
architecture in two manners. On the one hand, through the
understanding of thevirtual systems and theirindexical
connections to theiractual geometric traces, it offers a key
to decipher Morphosis' sophisticated architecture; it
changes the status of those very complex objects from
fascinating and mysterious to fascinating and didactic; it
proposes a way to reach the unique architectural
knowledge those projects and artifacts convey. On the
other hand, by the production of new artifactsFigure
( 19 &
20), conceptual and resolutely interpretive, it brings
another form of knowledge, more sensitive, that
harmonizes with the artifacts from the 1980s and
contributes to the documentation of the initial architectural
9. References
Atkin, A. (2013). Peirce’s theory of signs. In E. N. Zlata
(Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy .
Retrieved March 20, 2017, from
https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/peir
ce-semiotics/
Barthes, R. (1977). The death of the author. In
Image-
music-text (S. Heath, Trans.)(pp. 142–148). New York:
Hill and Wang.
Derycke, D. (2016). Morphosis drawings and models in the
mid 1980s: Graphic description of graphic thinking. In
Communicating Speculative and Creative Thinking (pp.
41–48). Bozeman, MT: Montana State University.
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Eisenman, P. (1987). Misreading. InHouses of cards(pp.
167–186). New York: Oxford University Press.
Eisenman, P., Krauss, R., & Tafuri, M. (1987).
Houses of
cards. New York: Oxford University Press.
Guinzbourg, M. I. (2010).Le rythme en architecture. (M.
Berger, Trans.). Gollion: Infolio.
Krauss, R. (1987). Death of a hermeneutic phantom:
Materialization of the sign in the work of Peter
Eisenman. InHouses of cards(pp. 166–184). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Rowe, C., & Slutzky, R. (1963). Transparency: Literal and
phenomenal.perspecta, 8, 45–54.
Venturi, R., Scott Brown, D., & Izenour, S. (1972).
Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Figure 19. Malibu House (1986 & 2006) – Morphosis: new actual artifact describing the original virtual system.

Figure 20. Reno House (1987) – Morphosis: new actual artifact describing the original virtual system.

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