Deconstructing structures: the architecture of Peter Eisenman

Eisenman's stone slab field lies between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of Berlin. The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe opened in 2005. "I think it's a bit too aesthetic. I wanted something ordinary, something banal," the architect remarked when it was finished. Out of hundreds of proposals, his idea was chosen in 1999. Its visitors meanwhile number on the millions.

It was the first major public facility designed by Peter Eisenman; before 1983, when he was awarded the commission by the University of Ohio, he had been active mainly as an instructor and writer on architectural theory. The large white metal scaffolding gives the building an unfinished look - and points to Eisenman's deconstructivist approach.

Built as low-income housing in Berlin, it was one of the central works of the International Building Exhibition in 1987. Eisenman's design exploits the interplay of differing quadratic frameworks. His original plans also called for a garden facility.

Peter Eisenman took the Honorary Lion in 2004 for his design of the City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela. The Biennale's theme that year was "Metamorphous," highlighting architecture's transformative capacity. Eisenman's work demonstrated the metamorphosis of architectural forms, materials and their manner of presentation.

Near the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela on Mount Gaiás in Spain stands Peter Eisenman's huge cultural center, a mix of architecture and landscape art. Art lovers have flocked to the location in northwestern Galizia since 2010. Tucked away in the landscape are a library, an archive, an administrative building, two museums and a theater seating 1,500.

Leipzig had an Olympic dream in 2003 when it applied for the 2012 Summer Games. Tossing his hat in the ring, Eisenman came up with a futuristic model that was displayed in the exhibition "Olympic Visions on the Path to Reality" in March 2003. On the right is a design by Dresden architect Peter Kulka. The city's application was unsuccessful and the 2012 Olympics went to London.

When Berlin's Holocaust Memorial was dedicated in 2005, Eisenman said, "To be honest, I don't think about memorials all that much. I'm much more interested in sports." He may have also been thinking of his stadium built from 2003 until 2006 in Phoenix for the NFL football team Arizona Cardinals.