Fold as a Non-spectacular Event: The Cases of Peter Eisenman′s Rebstockpark Master Plan (1990-1991) and The Aronoff Center for Design and Art (1988-1996)

• Published in: Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 385 - 392
• Main Author: Paek, Seunghan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTE OF JAPAN (AIJ), ARCHITECTURAL INSTITUTE OF KOREA (AIK), ARCHITECTURAL SOCIETY OF CHINA (ASC) 01.09.2018; Japan Science and Technology Agency; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Deleuze, Gilles; Entanglement; event; everyday life; fold; Gilles Deleuze; Peter Eisenman; spectacle
• ISSN: 1346-7581; 1347-2852
• DOI: 10.3130/jaabe.17.385

This article explores how philosopher Gilles Deleuze′s theory of the fold is extended to architectural design, and how such an extension prompts ′event′ in both the conceptual and realistic senses. In doing so, this article conducts two case studies: 1) the Rebstockpark Master Plan (1990-1991), and 2) The Aronoff Center for Design and Art (1988-1996). These two projects have similarities in that both were influenced by a Deleuzian theory of the fold in one way or another, which highlights that the world we live in is not so much homogeneous and fixed but rather multiple and in a perpetual process of becoming. While one can detect the influence of Deleuze′s theory in these Eisenman projects, it becomes more prominent in the latter case—the Aronoff—given that it is a built project in which the architect′s design conception provokes a multitude of events through the entanglement of various individuals′ fabrics of everyday life. By looking at both the conception of the fold proposed by Eisenman, and my habitual encountering with his built project where his theory is actively implemented, I claim that the Deleuzian event is not just a spectacular kind prompted by Eisenman himself, but unfolds in more subtle ways.