Abstract
The paper aims to account for Peter Eisenman’s reading of deconstruction as a source of his architectural work. As it is well known, during the 1980s Peter Eisenman and Jacques Derrida collaborated in an architectural project at the La Villette Park in Paris, called Chora L Work, and never realized. After the initial enthusiasm appeared some divergences that culminated in a polemical exchange of letters, documented by the proceedings of the conference “Critical architecture and contemporary culture” (Irvine, California, October 26-28, 1989). Throughout the reading of these documents, the paper aims to show that what is at stake in this polemic is a very different understanding of what “presence” means for Der-rida and Eisenman.
