ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that the modes and methods of representing the fragment developed are useful to analyse architectural sites in terms of their two-dimensional relationship with their contexts. Through its multiple ways of representing the world a fragment could potentially have a dual impact on our perception, both instrumentally and culturally; as Vesely points out, depending on the engagement with its setting, a fragment could either be negative or positive. The chapter discusses this particular stance to understand the place as a meaningful whole before and after the advent of the site through certain representational modes. Eisenman's Cities of Artificial Excavation project has showed the creative role of the plan, not only to record site qualities but also its potential to, as he claims, investigate and interrogate prevailing architectural discourses, and to instil the poetic aspects of Eisenman's work which the chapter illustrates further through his Wexner and Aronoff centres.
