My initial encounter with architectural deconstructivism left me gobsmacked. I first experienced it in Germany in the early 1990s. It was the Vitra Design Museum. My first impression was “is this a joke or some sort of circus fun-house”? I quickly discovered it was one of Frank Gehry’s (the butcher) early decontructivism projects.

Deconstructivism appeared around the early 1980s, and lasted until about 2010. It was the last phase of the postmodernist era. Unlike the ordered, balanced and harmonious lines of modernism and classical architecture, deconstructivism was rooted in the elimination of functional designs and encouraged dissonant and disproportioned elements to fragment and redefine the shapes and forms of a structure, making it appear dissected – somewhat like the aftermath of an autopsy.

I have always been quite open minded and a firm believer in artistic freedom and experimentation. Deconstructivism doesn’t bother me as much as brutalism (socialist architecture), and venturing out of the box can lead to new and inspirational concepts.

It’s not difficult recognizing architectural deconstructivism. Many of these buildings look as if they came right out of typical dystopian sci-fi movies where cataclysmic events occurred – as if bombs exploded from the inside out of a building; or were melted down by an alien death ray.

So Why Did Decontructivism Catch On So Quickly
#1. Bruatlism and Traditional Architecture Was Boring
Nearly everyone hated brutalsim, it was so ugly and depressing, architects and the public rebelled against it – they just wanted to move on. In addition, many architects were tired of working on humdrum and conventional buildings. As the deconstrutivism craze became popular in philosophy and the arts, it quickly spread to architecture.

#2. The Latest and Greatest
Deconstrutivism became “the new thing,” in town. International cities wanted to jump on the bandwagon and be recognized as being hip and avant-garde; they granted lucrative contracts to top architects. This allowed architects complete and unrestricted freedom to experiment to push the limits of their designs, and emancipate themselves from its accustomed limits. Many well known architects of the time heard the call.

#3. Advanced Computer Tech Made it Possible
The complicated and hyper unorthodox shapes being used in deconstrutivism could never have been conceived nor planned without the revolutionary strides and advancements in computer technologies, i.e. computer-aided design (CAD) and 3D modeling.

So Who Started All This Craziness?
Jacque Derrida (overrated charlatan) was the anarchist. I don’t want to be sidetracked and delve into philosophical dogma here, because philosophers have always resided in a bubble outside of reality. Derrida was no exception, In sum he studied philosophy, and described himself as an historian.

Derrida was born in Algiers in 1930, he was an early postmodernist, highly critical of the philosophy and intellectualism of the West – well no surprise here – after all he was born and raised in a former French colony, and being Jewish in an Islamic country he faced a fair amount of antisemitism, e.g. not being able to attend school consistently in his youth.

His main thesis of deconstructive analysis was to restructure, or “displace,” the opposition, not simply to reverse it. Derrida stated that deconstructivism was necessarily complicated and difficult to explain since it actively criticized the very language needed to explain it. In other words he was unable to define it – Sounds a lot like philosophical hot-air – In my view he over-egged the pudding.

Derrida actually reminds me of the Lilliputians from Gulliver’s 3rd voyage. They represented the absurdity of theoretical knowledge which had no relation to the actual world. He became popular in the 60s and was followed by a small but vocal group who had major anti-Western sentiments.

Derrida’s gibberish became fashionable again around 2014 when his writings inspired a younger generation of indoctrinated individuals who also exhibited Westernophobia (as well as the 32 gender crowd) with his premise that you could be anyone you pretended to be – I guess that explains a lot.

Destructivism in general turned out to be another architectural fad, however that said, there have been a few notable architects that have successfully pushed the boundaries of this style above and beyond its definitions, giving birth to metamodernism and futurism.