Derrida's early work repeatedly describes deconstruction as the "soliciting" of an edifice, "in the sense that Sollicitaire, in Old Latin, means to shake as a whole, to make tremble in entirety". If deconstructive discourse is anything, it is a form of interrogation that shakes structures in a way that exposes structural weaknesses. It puts structures under pressure, forcing them, taking them to their limits. Under a subtle but relentless strain their limits become evident and the structure becomes visible. (...) The unbuilding that is deconstruction is not a form of demolition. It establishes the conditions of possibility of the "traditional architecture" rather than staging its fall. To make a building tremble is precisely not to collapse it by subjecting it to some external force, but to explore it from within, even to consolidate the structure imitating its every gesture, faithfully repeating its operations but in a way that exposes its limits, opening up its structure or, rather, finding the openings that are already there, the concealed points of weakness.
The Architecture of Deconstruction, M. Wigley
