Deconstruction is a school of philosophy that originated in France in the late 1960s, has had an enormous impact onAnglo-American criticism. Largely the creation of its chief proponent Jacques Derrida, deconstruction upends theWestern metaphysical tradition. It represents a complex response to a variety of theoretical and philosophical movements of the 20th century, most notably Husserlian phenomenology, Saussurean and French structuralism, and Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis. In her book The Critical Difference (1981), Barbara Johnson clarifies the term “Deconstruction is not synonymous with destruction”, however. It is in fact much closer to the original meaning of the word ‘analysis’ itself, which etymologically means “undo” — a virtual synonym for “de-construct”.
In the 1980’s a new tendency was born: the deconstruction, which was also called “new modern architecture” in its beginning. It was meant to replace postmodern architecture. The new slogan was “form follows fantasy “analogous to the tradition formula pronounced by Sullivan” form follows function”.
In 1988 Philip Johnson organized an exposition called “Deconstructive Architecture” which finally brought these ideas to a larger audience. The idea was to develop buildings which show how differently from traditional architectural conventions buildings can be built without losing their utility and still complying with the fundamental laws of physics. These buildings can be seen as a parallel to other modern arts, which also became more and more abstract, questioning whether a certain object is still art or not. Thanks to their significant differences to all other buildings, the deconstructive ones made clear to the observer, that architecture is an art and not just an engineering discipline
