Blurred Zones: Investigations of the Interstitial: Eisenman Architects 1988-1998

Rating:
Summary: Predictable Blather
Review: From the pretentious title to the closing endpaper this book is jammed with the now hackneyed archi-speak that Eisenman et al impress themselves with. But mostly its the same old abstract blather. Whatever happened to the good-old days when young architects sought to be socially and artistically responsible, and were willing to learn how to craft a building through an understanding of construction and detail? Pied Piper Eisenman (via Benjamin and the other gooks) shows there is another, cruder, more ignorant path that can be taken much more easily. Take it at your peril.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable Blather
Review: From the pretentious title to the closing endpaper this book is jammed with the now hackneyed archi-speak that Eisenman et al impress themselves with. But mostly its the same old abstract blather. Whatever happened to the good-old days when young architects sought to be socially and artistically responsible, and were willing to learn how to craft a building through an understanding of construction and detail? Pied Piper Eisenman (via Benjamin and the other gooks) shows there is another, cruder, more ignorant path that can be taken much more easily. Take it at your peril.

Rating:
Summary: So Silly It Must Be Satire
Review: I am continually surprised by the inane writing that architects get away with. As a graduate student (philosophy major) switching to architecture, I have to read some of this rubbish for my course. Wake Up! Look arounf you. This is not theory or investigation. It is the sort of mindless crap that makes our cities so unlivable. For all his writing about disjunction, disturbing and transgression, I notice Eisenman lives in a nice homey traditional apartment building on 10th Street. Who is he kidding? YOU, - (if you willingly switch off your brain and buy into this balderdash.) Get sense. Read Louis Kahn, or anyone who genuinely understands architecture and people. This is all garbage.

Rating:
Summary: Vapid and More Vapid
Review: I am continually surprised by the inane writing that architects get away with. As a graduate student (philosophy major) switching to architecture, I have to read some of this rubbish for my course. Wake Up! Look arounf you. This is not theory or investigation. It is the sort of mindless crap that makes our cities so unlivable. For all his writing about disjunction, disturbing and transgression, I notice Eisenman lives in a nice homey traditional apartment building on 10th Street. Who is he kidding? YOU, - (if you willingly switch off your brain and buy into this balderdash.) Get sense. Read Louis Kahn, or anyone who genuinely understands architecture and people. This is all garbage.

Rating:
Summary: So Silly It Must Be Satire
Review: Imagine a round-table discussion populated by self-important academics who have spent no more than 10 or 15 minutes dabbling in Deleuze, Foucault, Derrida and several of the other discredited French "philosophers" who were popular in the 1990's. Add to the mix a dilettante's crude conception of significant architectural issues and an anarchists's adolescent satisfaction with upsetting the world that they feel so alienated by, - and you get some idea where Blurred Zones is heading. This book is no more than the flatulent commentary of people who like to hear the sound of their own voices. . A casual glance at almost any paragraph will confirm that it contains more ridiculousness than many sit-coms on TV. It should be noted that one of the authors (Cynthia Davidson) happens to be Eisenman's wife - so you can forget about any impartiality on that front. And, conveniently they all turn a blind eye to the building failures that typify many of Eisenman's completed works. (We are "theorists", remember - not real Architects. We are about diagrams, not buildings.) It is baffling and amusing to think that these people take themselves so seriously. Honestly, I found it funny to read selections in this book. It might more profitably be listed under 'Humor' or 'Satire'. Certainly it has no place on an architectural collection.

Rating:
Summary: Incoherent and Rambling
Review: OK, so it's at last fashionable to laugh at Eisenman and to see him for the amateur-hour theorist he really is. But if you have had any lingering doubts about the worthlessness of his writings, try absorbing this pompous and meaningless volume. Eisenman's usual tactic is to overlay a verbal or diagrammatic complexity on his subject matter; real or more pragmatic issues are ignored in favor of highly improbable theoretical assumptions. Eisenman indulges himself with meandering arguments that evidently seem impressive to him, but do not withstand critical analysis of any worthwhile sort. That there is a complete lack of clarity in Eisenman's thinking has always been the case. The "Blurred" of the title says it all. Don't be taken in by the con.

Rating:
Summary: Incoherent and Rambling
Review: OK, so it's at last fashionable to laugh at Eisenman and to see him for the amateur-hour theorist he really is. But if you have had any lingering doubts about the worthlessness of his writings, try absorbing this pompous and meaningless volume. Eisenman's usual tactic is to overlay a verbal or diagrammatic complexity on his subject matter; real or more pragmatic issues are ignored in favor of highly improbable theoretical assumptions. Eisenman indulges himself with meandering arguments that evidently seem impressive to him, but do not withstand critical analysis of any worthwhile sort. That there is a complete lack of clarity in Eisenman's thinking has always been the case. The "Blurred" of the title says it all. Don't be taken in by the con.

Rating:
Summary: don't get this book from amazon
Review: The book itself is great, but don't get this book from amazon.com. I order a new one from them three months ago, and they just gave me a broken one that has two pages been shred inside the book.

Rating:
Summary: no title
Review: this book contains several essays by peter and other authors. the book goes beyond DIAGRAM DIARIES to focus on the blurring process of materialitizing the diagram to figural. it is not only a very helpful additional reading to the DIAGRAM DIARIES, but also explains his idea self-systematically.

other essays by jeffry kipnis, micheal hays and other authors reviewed his idea in other viewpoints, also helpful to understand his writing and inspire your own idea.

Rating:
Summary: Fuzzy Logic ... more like
Review: This is a book with a lot of two-dollar words trying to make dime-store ideas sound like more than they are. Then there is the clubby back-patting that goes on amongst the writers that makes the analysis predictable if lacking in any depth. Blurred logic for sure, but rubbish mostly. - R. Cepedro (artist)