Issue 47

V. Alecci et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 47 (2019) 161-167; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.47.13 164 Figure 4 : Plan irregularity (Kokaeli, Turkey, 1999). Figure 5 : Vertical irregularity (Sichuan, China, 2008). D ECONTRUCTIVIST TRENDS IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE he term "deconstructivist architecture" appears for the first time in 1988, at the exhibition organized by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Deconstructivism immediately appeared as opposite to the rationality of Postmodernism, Functionalism, Structuralism and also Eclecticism (in fact, Eclectism is the combination of different materials and styles, but maintaining an architectural scheme still strongly dependent on structural requirements). Deconstructivist architecture represents the overcoming of highly celebrated theories - based on expressions like “form follows function”, “purity of form”, “truth to material”, etc. - and of the philosophy of architects like Le Corbusier, Wright, Mies Van Der Rohe, Michelucci. Deconstructivism is characterized by an absence of harmony, continuity, or symmetry. Deconstructivist architectures have an unstable geometry, sudden cuts in architectural and structural continuity, deformed volumes, asymmetry, unrecognizability of structural elements. Theoretical base of deconstructivist architecture is the philosophy of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and, in particular, his concept of “différance”. Extending the Heidegger's theory of the difficulty of Being, Derrida recognizes the indefinability of the identity of Being as it preserves an intrinsic “différance”. Derrida had a significant influence upon the humanities and social sciences, including literature, law, anthropology, historiography, applied linguistics, psychoanalysis, political theory, ethics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, architecture (in the form of deconstructivism), music. Derrida’s philosophy influenced the Deconstructivism’s fathers who exhibited their projects at the MoMA in 1988: Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Frank O. Gehry, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi. They designed always rejecting the principles of Vitruvian geometry and harmony which Perroult transformed into firmitas, utilitas venustas triad. In the first book of Vitruvius’ treatise “De Architectura”, is reported: “All buildings must have solidity, utility and beauty. They will have solidity when the foundations, constructed with materials chosen with care and without greed, will rest deeply and firmly on the ground; utility when the distribution of the interior space of each building will be correct and of practical use; beauty, when the aspect of the work will be pleasant for the harmonious proportion of the parts obtained with the accurately calculated symmetry”. Conversely, in the book “Line of fire” of Daniel Libeskind [14] is reported: "(The Vitruvian Principles) were extended beyond the Roman world, beyond the West, to the Islamic and Indian architecture and, through the European Renaissance, they come to modernity and to the contemporary and globalized world. With their deference to the right angle and the correct way to build, with their care for the geometric order, the symmetry and the rigid proportions, the Ten Books became a sort of emblem of what was codified and institutionalized with the name of Architecture”. Libeskind reflects on "the liberation of architecture from Vitruvio's diktat", proposing a new architecture not depending on geometric rules but on music, astronomy, graphology, theater and art. This philosophy is the crucial base of his projects and buildings: the Berlin Jewish Museum (Fig. 6) inspired by the music of Arnold Schönberg, the new Ground Zero and the Warsaw Tower drawn up following the Sun's motion trajectory, the Las Vegas City Center (Fig. 7) inspired T