The architectural writings of Peter Eisenman tend to rely heavily on jargon and polemic
statements. Even when Eisenman defines words for his readers, he uses terminology
which itself requires some form of clarification. This has frustrated debate about his
architecture because first, the words can mean at the same time different things to
different people and second, the designs become ‘moving targets’ which are
impervious to critical appraisal since the debate is conducted on Eisenman’s own illdefined
terms rather than on any objective or analytical basis. It has been even
suggested by Evans that this is a deliberate ploy on Eisenman’s part to avoid such
examination (Evans, 1992). The objective of this paper is to shift the focus of the
debate away from his theoretical writings to the architectural objects themselves.
Formal and spatial analysis of eight Peter Eisenman houses has been conducted.
Based on this analysis, it is suggested that the apparent complex differentiations of
form in 2 and 3 dimensions underlying Eisenman’s designs leads to a distinctive and
pervasive spatial homogeneity in each house - not spatial differentiation as has been
implied. This results in each house being characterised by a well-defined genotype
which incorporates the rigid separation of public and private function spaces and the
integrating of the houses through stair and transition spaces. It is suggested that this
occurs despite the rather elegant and simple formal rules of composition discernible
in the design of the houses.