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	The Amorphous Thread By Steven Edward McGann
	Throughout the history of architecture linearity and simple geometric form have been the dominant givers of form. Conceptual simplicity and universality, along with simplified construction methods, have made this the approach of choice for most architectural schools of thought. There has always existed, however, a rogue element, an amorphous thread, which occasionally resurfaces at the forefront of architecture. In the late 19th century the Art Nouveau movement hit the architectural scene, bringing Amorphism into the spotlight. In reaction to the Industrial revolution architects embraced the organic forms of the new style, applying its aesthetic to construction details and facades in an attempt to glorify the creation of man’s hand over the products of machines.
Section, Hotel Tassel	In 1893, Victor Horta began designing the Hotel Tassel, a private residence for a fellow mason in Brussels. This building marks the emergence of the tenets of Art Nouveau into the architectural arena. While this design broke from the established norm, it was far from unusual in today’s terms. The plan of the building, while not entirely orthogonal, remained rectilinear. In section it is apparent that the structure of the building remains linear, the only evidence of the new style being the treatment of the ceiling in several rooms. The novelty in Horta’s approach was restricted in essence to an elaborate interior project.
Main Stair, Hotel Tassel	While the form and structure of Hotel Tassel showed little innovation, the execution of the details gave birth to a whole new architectural style in Brussels. The ironwork in the rail of the main stair is sculpted into a vine-like form, made all the more dramatic by the accompanying mural flowing down the wall beside it. The organic forms whipping up the wall are a perfect tribute to the graphic style from which this architectural innovation came. The floor, laid in orange and white tiles, elaborates on the curve of the stair filling large square sections of floor with beautiful scrollwork. The windows and hardware chosen for the house follow suite, and even the metal columns end in a flowering capital that grows from its top to catch the structure above.
Plan and Section, Maison and Atelier Horta	Horta brought the Art Nouveau interior close to perfection when he completed his own residence in 1989, the Maison and Atelier Horta. While the plan and section of this plan also remain rectilinear, once again Horta’s detailing is full of exquisite organic form. By now, Horta has abandoned the superficial application of painted murals to accent his work and has moved on to hand crafted wood pieces to compliment his style. Every doorway is a hand-crafted piece of art, and at every opportunity custom built furniture surrounds fireplaces or provides a place to sit. Expertly crafted wood details flourish at every possibility, providing asymmetry and organic form to windows and giving handrails and trim an unexpected turn at each terminus or intersection.
Main Stair, Maison and Atelier Horta	The laylight in the top of the main stair is the closest Horta ever comes to an amorphously sculpted space. On either side of the stair, he places an elegantly formed mirror, repeatedly reflecting the space ad infinitum. The form of the laylight follows the shape of the mirror, curving in a natural sloping arch terminating into a cantilevered glass panel. While this execution of space is far from innovative, it stands out as original among its peers. While Horta’s application of amorphism barely scraped above a superficial application, he was a pioneer in the realm of non-linear form. His elegant detailing succeeded in exalting the craftsman above the machine and brought the organic motif of the Art Nouveau graphic artists into the field of architecture.
Elevation, Castel Beranger	Just a year after Horta made his debut in Brussels, a young architect named Hector Guimard made a splash in the French architecture scene with his award-winning design for the façade of Castel Beranger. Much like Horta’s early work, the application of amorphous form to the Castel Beranger was executed in a superficial manner, taking a structure much like any other and applying an avant-garde aesthetic to the detailing.
Front Gate, Castel Beranger	While Guimard’s façade shows no formal amorphism, the ironwork around the windows and in the main gate twist into patterns once again like the graphic art of the Art Nouveau movement. Cast-iron sea horses jut from the stone face of the building, playfully emphasizing the organic nature of the adjacent detailing. The most innovative of the elements of the façade, the front gate starts simply with a flat arch resting on a column on either side, but through carefully crafted stone detailing transforms into a uniquely executed portal. The base and capital of the columns are sculpted in such a manner that they seem to grow out of the stone itself, rising to meet the structure above. The gate itself is the most exquisite of all the ironwork, taking full advantage of the asymmetry inherent in the door within a door design, completing an entrance that, while typical in its form, can only be described as revolutionary in its style.
Castiron Detail, Castel Beranger	Though not nearly as impressive as the interiors of Horta’s work, The interior of Castel Beranger follows the parti established in its façade. The asymmetry and organic flowing form Guimard adopted from nature can be seen in many elements of the interior. The stained glass, a must for any Art Nouveau building, does not disappoint. The wallpaper selected is adorned with the familiar whiplash and even the carpet is woven with the swirling organic forms of the movement. Included in Guimard’s design are several beautiful furniture pieces that, more than any other aspect of his design, fully embrace the ideals of the Art Nouveau movement, seeming to grow out of the floor to catch a tired resident, or hold that precious item.
Elevation, Maison Coilliot	In 1898 Guimard began one of his most elegant examples of Art Nouveau design, the Maison Coilliot. A tribute to one of his favored materials, the building was a shop and living quarters for a ceramic craftsman. Simultaneously paying homage to a craftsman and his craft, the Maison Coilliot was truly an Art Nouveau creation. Beautifully combining symmetry and asymmetry, Guimard manages to execute a façade perfectly in line with the tenets of his style yet maintain a feeling of balance and harmony pleasing to the eye. Splitting the façade into two unequal bays provides the necessary asymmetry, while an organically shaped transom lights gives the fenestration an organic flare. The whole composition is accented by flowing sculpture in the ceramic glazed stonework. Once again ironwork and glazing adopt the whiplash motif, and the structure of the cantilevered roof bows out like the limbs of a tree to catch the canopy. Accenting the whole thing is a ceramic sign, split by the asymmetrical structure, painted in the graphic style of the Art Nouveau movement. An elegantly interlocking of void and solid frames a space for a third floor balcony. Rather modern in its execution, this fluid use of space is sculpted by a fenestrated wall set at twenty degrees to the façade of the building. Built near the end of his career, the Maison Coilliot is arguably Guimard’s most elegant execution of the Art Nouveau style.
Metro Station, Porte Dauphine	In 1900, when Paris decided to install a modern rail system of public transport, Guimard was chosen to provide a pleasing veneer for the dirty industrial innards of the metro. To construct his stations, Guimard chose to use a cast iron frame with a glass and iron plate infill. This choice of material allowed him to fully embrace organic form in his detailing, and even the modularity of the design seems to be the result of natural growth rather than an industrial process. Guimard’s masterpieces of the Art Nouveau style provided one of the best public transportation systems ever with a beautiful, friendly front.
Section, Guell Pavilion	Of all the Art Nouveau architects, Barcelona’s Antoni Gaudi diverged the most from the standard of linear form. From his early years as an architect, Gaudi studied the works of Viollet-le-duc, and was well versed in the work of the gothic architects. From the gothic cathedrals Gaudi drew not a stylistic variation but an idea of how they dealt with the compressive forces inherent in their chosen building material. This lesson can be seen first in his Casa Vicens in the form of pointed arches, and later in the parabolic arches of the Guell Pavillions, a more natural solution to the problem of spanning a distance with compressive materials. Gaudi was fortunate enough to obtain patronage from the Guell family, a client interested enough in his work to allow him the freedom to explore his newfound style to its fullest potential.
Exterior, Guell Pavilion	Amorphism first entered into Gaudi’s work in his design of the Guell Pavilions in 1884. While most of the exterior of the buildings maintained a modular pattern, several key elements maintained the organic motif central to Art Nouveau. The arches took a parabolic shape, conforming to the pattern compressive materials take in nature when spanning distances. The caps of the domes are decorated in sculpted concrete and tile to take on a natural appearance, as if they had grown out of the top of the buildings. The main gate of the compound is executed in wrought iron in the shape of a magnificent dragon, guarding the place against intrusion. The skin of the building, while modular, is executed in a semicircular pattern reminiscent of the scales of a fish. Together, these elements give the otherwise rectilinear exterior of this building a very amorphous feel.
Structural Plan, Guell Crypt	In 1898, the Guell family once again hired Gaudi, this time to design a church. The project was never completed, but the lower part of the church, the crypt, was completed. Early drawings for the design show a completely amorphous form, reminiscent of large earthen ant hills. The design appears to be the inspiration for the later design of the taller, more slender towers of Sagrada Familia. While the church was never finished what was left was never the less a magnificent structure. While its layout is roughly symmetrical, the form of the structure is anything but. Few of the columns are actually straight, and most appear to be roughly hewn out of the earth itself. The space between the slanted columns is spanned by a series of parabolic vaults, each responding to a unique set of structural imperatives. These elements combine to form the most completely amorphous space yet to be formed. The building seems to rise out of the ground, alive in its effort to resist gravity’s forces.
Structural Detail, Guell Crypt	The natural form of this building is no accident. The structural model for the project was not drawn on paper, but formed by a network of strings on which he hung weights representing the weight to which the final structure would have to respond. In this way, Gaudi’s design was not a static series of elements fit to meet certain criteria, but a dynamic model that molded itself to the actual demands of the loads placed on it. Even the formation of this structure follows a natural, organic process. It is with this building that Gaudi took the idea of the amorphous from a merely stylistic appearance and translated it into an ingenious structural theory.
Plan, Guell Park	The Guell family furthered their patronage of Gaudi when they hired him to design Guell Park. Though originally meant to be a model settlement, the park remained empty of development, becoming what it is today – a beautiful urban park. Though centered around a symmetrical, linearly organized grid of columns, the surrounding park is anything but symmetrical or linear. The outer columns even slant, as if signaling the observer that the regularity is ending. Surrounding this ordered center is a series of elements, each one unique, that combine into a cohesive whole.
Plan, Office at Guell Park	At the entrance to the park stand two of the three buildings actually built in the project. The porter’s lodge and the office building, neither building shows much respect for linear form. The plan of each is composed primarily of curves meeting curves, the masonry walls rising to meet the roof. The roofs of these buildings are amazing, molded from the walls which curve in plan and in elevation, decorated by odd shaped protrusions and finally forming itself into a dome-like structure capped by a mushroom-like form. Even the screens covering the windows bulge out of plane towards the exterior of the building.
Exterior, Office at Guell Park	Atop the column grid is an elevated plaza, dissolving into pathways that make their way up the hill on one side, and terminating at a rail on the other. The rail curves sinuously between the slanted columns at the edge of the space, allowing one of the best views Barcelona has to offer, both of the city and of the people milling about below.
Elevated Walk, Guell Park	While the majority of the park adheres fairly strictly to the hillside, when Gaudi is forced to elevate a roadway he does so in style. Throughout his park he implements a refined version of the structural system developed in the Guell Crypt. Slanted, sometimes spiraling columns trace the parabolic paths the compressive forces follow to support the walkways above. While stylistically Guell Park represents another step in Gaudi’s maturation as a designer, its real value lies in its structure. In it’s elevated walkways and plazas, the park further explores the structural language that is Gaudi’s real contribution to architecture. It’s slanted column system and organically formed vaults are a hint at what would later become Gaudi’s magnus opus, Segrada Familia.
Plan, Casa Battlo	In contrast to the open natural setting for Gaudi’s Guell Park, his next project required that he fit his amorphous style into the rigid confines of the cityscape. The pattern of the city is referenced in the layout of the façade of Casa Batllo – windows are rectangular, and organized into regular bays and floors and the building has a heavy base – but beyond that the similarities disappear. The structure of the base is sculpted into a bone-like structure, curving out from the plane of the façade at times in 3-dimensionally complex shapes. Rising out of the base is a spotted undulating skin, its organic texture in contrast to the rigidly square windows that puncture it. The whole of the building is capped by a serpent-like roof bearing absolutely no resemblance to the rigid structures that surround it, but looking more like a dinosaur perched atop the façade. The railing at the windows and roof terrace grow from the plane of the façade like fungus from the skin of a tree. The overall appearance is a surreal combination of linear structure and organic form that playfully accepts the formal rules mandated by its location in the city, yet maintains an entirely alien identity.
Exterior, Casa Battlo	When entering the building, one is not disappointed but rather finds a reality every bit as whimsical as the exterior suggested. The straight line disappears and one is plunged into a fantastical experience comparable to diving a magnificent coral reef. While much attention is paid to sculpting a 3-dimensionally amorphous environment, Gaudi does not neglect the details. The main stair curves upward like the backbone of a giant sea serpent, the hand crafted wooden rail following it playfully to twist itself around a beautifully ornamented post at the bottom. Every door is hand crafted to match the décor, and around every corner sits a surprise, like a mushroom shaped fireplace nook or a ceiling that spirals down towards the floor like the beginnings of a whirlpool.
Main Stair, Casa Battlo	While the Guell Park and Crypt were studies in amorphous structure, Casa Batllo was a study in the freeform sculpting of amorphous space. In contrast to Horta’s interiors, which were decorated elegantly in an amorphous style, Gaudi’s interiors become amorphous themselves. Where Horta’s spaces disappoint after the promise made by the detailing, Gaudi’s organic detailing grows out of the language established by the very space itself.
Exterior, Einstein Tower	During the Modernist period following the Art Nouveau movement, natural form and amorphous space took the backseat to logical form and abstract space. Even during this era when most architects built minimalist rectilinear forms the amorphous thread of architecture resurfaced in the works of Eric Mendelsohn. When he designed the Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Mendelsohn broke from the architectural style of the time to create an expressively amorphous building. To sculpt the form of the building, Mendelsohn chose a combination of pre-cast concrete and load bearing masonry. Unlike the highly decorated buildings of the Art Nouveau period the details of the tower are executed to suppress materiality and to allow the abstract form of the building to speak for itself. The concrete and masonry are treated similarly with a white veneer to disallow differentiation between the components, forcing one to viewthe building as a whole. Like most modernist buildings the form of the tower has a machine-like quality, reminiscent of an ocean liner or cruise ship. The shape of the building’s fenestration has a relatively linear form, but an amorphous flourish is carved into the thick walls around each penetration. Straight lines are all but non-existent, and in most places the skin of the building curves in two directions. While modern in its detailing, this building truly is an amorphous masterpiece.
Photo and Model, Fish Scuplture	In the computer age, no architect has embraced amorphism more thoroughly than Frank Gehry. In 1989 Gehry constructed a sculpture of a fish at the Vila Olimpica in Barcelona. A recurring theme in Gehry’s work, the fish seems to be the inspiration for the non-linearity in his work. To design this completely amorphous form Gehry uses CATIA (computer aided three-dimensional interactive application), a program developed for the French aerospace industry, to create complex three-dimensional digital models from physical models which Gehry himself creates. Once the computer model is created, the structure can be designed to fit the skin of the shape desired. This approach allows the trademark gestural quality that makes Gehry’s work so unique.
Plan and Exterior, Guggenheim	In 1991 Gehry began the design of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the first large scale project in while the CATIA software was fully utilized. The skin of this building was clad in titanium sheets, a material Gehry would find particularly suitable for his work. The sheets are stacked in a vaguely brick-like pattern, giving the surface an almost modernist abstract quality. This patterned surface is the only indication of linearity on the exterior of the building. The form of the building rises like a mockery of traditional linearity, trying so hard to contrast with the architecture that came before it that it looses connection with the surrounding city, and even with the architectural schools of thought that came before it.
Plan and Exterior, Guggenheim	In 1992 Gehry began the design for the Nationale-Nederlanded Building in Prague. This building represents a major shift in Gehry’s design strategy, as he breaks from his intellectually masturbatory manipulation of form evident in the design of the Guggenheim. These twin “ implied towers”, sometimes called Fred and Ginger, again use CATIA, to this time to combine the free-flowing gestural quality of Gehry’s work with several elements of linear design. The visible structure, while twisted to fit the form of the building, is organized in a standard reinforced concrete post and beam system. The fenestration maintains a strict linearity, undulating slightly with the lines of relief in the skin of the building. A drastically different approach than the freely amorphous form of the Guggenheim, the linear qualities in the design of Fred and Ginger allow a frame of reference for the departure from traditional form. This foil provides the context for a greater expression than the amorphous form could achieve on its own.
	When one looks through the fabric of the architectural past an amorphous thread stands out against the inherent linearity. First evident in the graphic style of the Art Nouveau movement, this thread weaves its way through Gaudi’s surreal interiors and peculiar structures to the twisted digital models of Gehry. Whether to satisfy an avante-garde style, solve a non-universal structural problem, or to create the possibility of a gestural, expressive architectural language this thread remains different from the linear norm surrounding it, and for that it is beautiful.
	Works Cited: Dernie, David and Carew-Cox, Aiastair. Victor Horta. Great Britain: Academy Editions, 1995. Maurice Rheims. Hector Guimard. New Yrok: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1985. Zerbst, Rainer. Gaudi. Tokyo: Rikuyo-sha Publishing, Inc., 1985. Pane, Roberto. Antoni Gaudi. Milano: Edizioni di Comunita, 1964. Von Eckardt. eric mendelsohn. New York: Beorge Braziller, Inc., 1960. Ragheb, J. Fiona. FRANK GEHRY, ARCHITECT. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2001. Lindsey, Bruce. DIGITAL GEHRY. Berlin: Birkhauser – Publishers for Architecture, 2001.
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