CARDBOARD ARCHITECTURE

 

Eisenmann's explanation of architecture's transition from a humanist architecture to a post modern architecture coincides with a similar transition that occurred in the early 20th Century with Aldof Loos' "Ornament and Crime." Loos' thesis became a starting point for the International Style that overtook the 1920s with the works of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. However, this starting point into the International style removed certain aspects of architecture that people related to in regards to exterior ornamentation, but created new aspects of architecture that can be replicated in any place in the world.

However, these new aspects of the International Style are also the most criticized in some areas of architecture and often called "cardboard architecture". Hearing Eisenmann use this term in a positive sense was a change of perception on the term. His architecture leans into the idea of cardboard entirely and takes Loos' starting point a step further. As Loos took away "the place" of architecture, Eisenmann essentially takes away "the purpose", creating a new interaction of people with the structures or spaces around them. With this, is this architecture even made for humans or does it take on an entirely new role within our society as we transition to the post modern world?