Lehrman American Studies Center

"The Emperor Has No Clothes" is an old adage, but, in the sad case of Deconstructivism, it is absolutely appropriate, as Deconstructivism is really nothing more than Modernism in a new guise. Modernists, notably the Bauhäusler, aimed for the clean slate, jettisoning everything that went before. Yet, at times, they claimed links with antecedents to give a spurious historical ancestry to their aims and creations. These questionable links and precedents are now being claimed for the works of Deconstructivists by sympathetic architects and their supporters. The second edition of this book is the beginning of a long-overdue counterattack.