Crisis of the Object: The Architecture of the Atricality

Crisis of the Object discusses the theoretical issues pertinent to the historicisation of contemporary architectural praxis. Providing a critical analysis of three important contemporary architects; Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry and Bernard Tschumi, it demonstrates the complexities involved in architecture’s adaptation to media technologies and the ways the aesthetic of theatricality plays a critical role when architecture has to rethink themes such as roofing and wrapping. The text historicizes contemporary architecture in the light of the ongoing secularization of myths surrounding the traditions of nineteenth century architecture, in general, and Gottfried Semper’s discourse on the tectonic, in particular.