Nov 8, 2012

Sculpural designs

Many years ago when I first visited the city of Barcelona in Spain, I was astonished by Antonio Gaudi's Casa Battlo. Casa means house in Spanish, and it was a building still inhabited by local residents. Gaudi didn't build the casa from scratch, he re-created it through re-building its outer facade in the early 1900s. With a face-lift, the building was transformed into a dream-like fantasy land in the heart of a middle-class residential area populated by mundane buildings. Gaudi's Casa used numerous shapely curvatures to signify an organic form, a living icon among concrete structures, and a pioneer of modern day sculptural architecture, serving the same aesthetic function among modern high-rises.

Modern sculptural buildings usually not only create an organic outlook, like the Casa did, but they would incorporate an organic element in its total design-concept, that serves an integral part of the building's functional and experiential objectives. The Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright, built in 1950s, is such an example. The exterior focal point of the museum is its signature spiral center. This center is an integral part of the personality of the museum in that it serves as the main curved exhibition wall spiraling up at the core of the museum. A visitor upon entering the museum will be standing at the bottom of the central void, inside the spiral and enjoy its magnificence from the perspective of an upward browse, right from its heart. The spiral also serves functionally as a ramp for visitors going up the floors (there are lifts too for those who do not choose to walk all the way up), and at the same time allowing them the special experience of leisurely walking up a similar ramp in most modern car parks, without fear of the impending danger of a sport car racing down (or alternatively enjoying the thrill of such imagination). In short, it is signified with different layers of meaning, in addition to its impressive organic outlook.

My Dancing Roses were designed with a modernistic sculptural concept in mind. The structural base is as much aesthetically appealing as being functional. It serves to conceal the gadgets responsible in making the roses dance. Design-wise, it is therefore more Wright than Gaudi, though it looks as colorful as the Casa!

The special meaning of my Dancing Roses was discussed in my previous post Dancing to Jazz, interested reader can click on the linkage to access the article.
Sabina Lee - Dancing Roses


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