Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Peter Eisenman emerged in the 1970s as one of the so-called New York Five in a group exhibition at MOMA on the theme of housing, a theme that was one of the first to be analysed in the uninterrupted sequence of research on the transformation of space. Since then he has continued to work on the broader themes of linguistics and any other discipline that might contribute to raising the potential of an architecture that is increasingly pursued by the media and compromised by changing technologies. Eisenman clarifies his own path in architecture as the expression of an idea that synthesises the cultural, philosophical, scientific and literary universe of our times. And this is the great lesson of an architecture calibrated and studied for over forty years, in constant evolution, the expressive and investigative freedom which is absolutely unique at a time of formal unease, whether through excess or insufficiency. This volume attempts to grasp Eisenman's investigation into the sense and meaning of space, of an architecture that is present even when formally absent. It features some of Eiseman's more recent projects including the massive Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe of Berlin, City of Culture of Galicia, and the Guangdong Museum competition and includes essays on the diagram by Jeffrey Kipnis, Anthony Vidler and Peter Eisenman.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Subject-Object-Complement. Brief Chronicle of an 'Unexpected' Architecture (p. 9)
• What is a Diagram anyway? (p. 19)
• Critical Analyses
• Toward an Understanding of Form in Architecture (p. 30)
• A Critical Analysis: Giovan Battista Piranesi (p. 40)
• A Critical Analysis: Andrea Palladio (p. 50)
• A Critical Analysis: Luigi Moretti (p. 66)
• A Critical Analysis: Giuseppe Terragni (p. 74)
• Project Research
• House II (p. 82)
• Cannaregio Town Square (p. 98)
• House X (p. 104)
• Beyond the Diagram. Iconography, Discipline, Architecture (p. 111)
• Guardiola House (p. 124)
• FSM East River Competition (p. 134)
• The Virtual House (p. 144)
• Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (p. 152)
• The City of Culture of Galicia (p. 164)
• Guangdong Museum (p. 180)
• Re-originating Diagrams (p. 193)
• Feints: The Diagram (p. 203)
• Selected Built Projects (p. 206)
• Essential Bibliography (p. 207)
• Biography of Peter Eisenman (p. 208)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Cassara, an architect and professor of history of architecture at the University of Bologna, has tackled a difficult task in trying to explain some of the recent architectural works of famous American architect Peter Eisenman. The unpredictability of Eisenman's design portfolio, coupled with his underlying complicated personal design concepts, makes it a challenge for one to fully understand the essence of his work. Cassara, through a critical analysis of several projects by well-known architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Andrea Palladio, Luigi Moretti, and Giuseppe Terragni, tries to connect a number of Eisenman's designs, built and conceptual, to the same criteria, and thus validate the genius of his efforts. The book is loaded with at least a hundred wonderful graphic examples in black-and-white and color pictures, computer-generated and manual sketches, models, and diagrams from all the aforementioned designers. To the neophyte, it is written in a complicated and challenging manner, pressing a higher philosophical level in the reader. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Appropriate for all levels of readers. R. P. Meden Marymount University