From Logocentrism to Derrida's Deconstruction, and The Death of Style

-The Platonic Nemesis as the advocator of Logos

I found a Deconstructivist book by Derrida called 'Writing and Difference'. In that I found ideas on my long questioning of why Style has dead. Here, I compose all my points why I think so.

Architecture is an endless quest of constant struggle against gravity and the complementing organization of spaces. From the start of architectural history, the struggle begun. It is human's creativity in dealing with that struggle against the gravitational pull and space design that produce architectural style. The greek hexastyle, the parthenon octostyle, the Islamic hypostyle up until the modern domino was a type of creative battle against the nature of gravity in the provision of organised spaces - each one a new creative solution.

From the first birth of architecture when we came out from cave and have our roof, wall and floor in place as our shelter taking form, the chronological progression of style commenced until, (I would personally say)the modern era. The 1960's Structuralist was the cul-de-sac for our much obsessed architecture style. Since then, any new found 'style' or new theory of style or any redefinition of style are seen as futile and underdeveloped. Easily saying, the climax of a great style like the modernist is now hard to emulate. All of these could be traced back to the consequence of work by one man who had play an antagonist role and rebellious enough to scatter the foundation of the whole western philosophy which is much advocated by Plato's Nemesis and the Christian Trinity. His name is Derrida (1930-2004)
-The most influential 21th century philosopher, French Jacques Derrida

Jacques Derrida's work has great influence in trembling the whole ground of western metaphysics and even has dampened the foundation of western architecture since the time postmodernist architects embraced the linguistic work of Derrida. The whole game is called Deconstruction. The great string of architectural Style progress broken when Deconstructivist theory forerunner architects like Wolf D. Prix, Helmut Swiczinsky and Bernard Tschumi conceived the idea from Derrida. Never since their work, our creative struggle against the law of gravity and the space organisation and hierarchy ended.

Derrida first presented his long developed idea of Deconstruction in the U.S. in his paper called "Structure, Sign and Play, in the Discourse of the Human Sciences". In that he found out that most of Werstern Philosophy (until the modern era) were indeed in a continuous search for the Logos. Those proponents of western philosophical theory are in fact share a negative character of being Logocentric. Logocentrist is those who consider meaning in all things in life could firmly attached to some originary source that is pure, eternal and unchanging (the Logos). Example, the incarnation of Christ in Christianity; the Prophet, the Quran, the God, the Paradise, the ultimate Beauty in Islam. Whenever human talk of beauty, they are in direct reference to the heavenly Beauty with a Capital B; the God with Captial G..etc.. That ultimate totality of those Logos are the base of all theories in Western philosophy, considered the touchstone, the origin that is pure or the source to everything. Any new theory that claims to go beyond and free from the previous thinking is indeed useless or Derrida said 'Waylessness', in Greek called 'Aporia'. All of these new found idea, esthetic, theology even linguistic are to point back to Meaning/the ultimate Truth (with Capital T) or some higher end. The pursuit of style or more commonly like a human who pursuit fashion and knowledge, they are in a journey to reach that Truth and Meaning (the logos). New architectural style have the tendency of being like that. All architects seek that Logos, for its promises to give Meaning and Purpose to all things in world, that act as an universal centre, a transcendental signified that all signifier can refer back to. All new movement and theory are indeed trying to find that Logos where they can ground on, a desire for a higher reality in a world that is rather uncertain and full of death.

In architecture, the Logocentricism is in fact more serious. From the great pyramid until the utopian modernism, all are guided by the ego of Logocentricism, externally and internally. The pyramid is the preparation place before the reincarnation of the Pharaoh, where the secret chamber and the passage were used as accelerator for the soul of Pharaoh to travel to the stars for reincarnation. The Pharaoh and the believed blessing of annual flood from him is the Logos behind the invention of Pyramid. Likewise, the greek Parthenon is a theory that serves the Logos of Goddess Athena. Victorian industrialist architecture with the Logos of new found industrial society and technology. Last, the modernist with the Logos of industrial age, functionalism, rationality and machines. Besides, there lies an internal Logos of ego among modernist who claimed the win of technology against religion, who claim the True Beauty of human rationality, morality and the concept of Zeitgeist. But that marks the end of Logos in architecture when Postmodernism and the Deconstructivist idea of Derrida flourish. The Style ended.
-The Aporia as in Dante's 'The Dark Wood of Error'

Deconstruction of Derrida is a method to break and dismantle all Logos and Logocenticism in the world. The 'deconstruction' means to tear down and deconstruct all the efforts in search for the Logos. It promote a full free play of Meaning, unbound the bounded structure(logos) of all things, synchronic and refuse to be attached in the Aporia of Logos, refuse to be pinned down and refuse to be putted in a 'box'. In architecture the whole progress of style is an useless Aporia that each of them seek a high reality of greater Truth which indeed doesn't exist. It is like the hamster wheel and an act of masturbation. Something proven when effort to ignite a new great style has failed, like the movement of metabolism, post-functionalism, blobitecture, Memphis Group and the recent Parametrism. All of it because the new age of Deconstruction has begun, one that allow no Logo or Style or new Theory that could extent our stupid Aporia.

The deconstructivist work of firm Coop Himmelblau on the Funder Factory Works 3, in St Veit Austria and the design of Parc de la Villette by Tschumi in Paris mark the death of Style, architecture no longer posses the struggle against gravity and space organisation could now be played boundlessly with no reference to the source of history. The order of base-shaft-pediment, column and beam, private and public, solid and void are now in history book! They are rotten Logos of total self-conscious idea and theories! Everything are now in Total Free Play!
-Coop Himmelblau's deconstructivist Funder Factory Works 3 - World's first deconstructivist 'building'.

-Parc de la Villette of Bernard Tschumi with direct consultation from Derrida.