Surrealism and Architecture
- our dreams are reality
Writer: Yang Yuhao
Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
Image taken from The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, 1954 by Salvador Dali (dalipaintings.com)
“The madman is a dreamer awake.” True to the words of American neurologist Sigmund Freud, those “dream-chasers” are often seen as “madmen” in pursuit of their version of utopia. Taking a more literal approach to this concept of “dream-chaser”, writer André Breton penned the Surrealist Manifesto which called for the destabilization of boundaries between dreams and reality, objectivity and subjectivity. The birth of surrealism has inspired artists and designers alike to negotiate the divide between the tangible and the intangible and continue to push the limits of technology by turning dreams into reality.
Personal Values by Rene Magritte
Image taken from Personal Values, 1952 by Rene Magritte
When talking about surrealism, one would immediately imagine the scape of floating apples, melting clocks or even collision of buildings in ways that defies gravity. From The Ladder of Escape by Joan Miro, to The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, to more contemporary works such as the Inception movie directed by Christopher Nolan, surrealism is inseparable from the presentation and transformation of space and architecture.
Modern master René Magritte seeks to represent the dream state through the various painting of interior abstractions. Personal Values challenges our understanding of the proportion by filling a room with excessively enlarged day-to-day items such as comb and wine glass, The Human Condition negotiates the boundary of reality and dreamland by illustrating a hauntingly realistic image of an outdoor scape on a canvas next to a window while Time Transfix is even more unapologetic with its representation of a floating train out of a regular fireplace.
The Endless House by Frederick Kiesler
Image taken from Review: ‘Endless House’ Expands the Definition of Home - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
The exploration of interior space is pushed one step further by Salvador Dali as he materialized his painting Mae West Room. The composition of the room and furnishing are curated and designed to reflect the image of the famous Hollywood actress “Mae West” from the entrance.
However, the most famous surrealist architecture exploration comes in a decade long project by Frederick Kiesler. His project The Endless House comes in the form of a few interconnecting egg chambers. Guided by this concept of “Correalism” and “Continuity”, Kiesler seeks to generate space that responds to the varying social concerns and uses of its occupants.
Vitra Design Museum by Frank Gehry
Image taken from Vitra Design Museum - Wikipedia
Today, works by Frank Gehry such as the Vitra Design Museum continue to explore surrealist abstractions in the form of deconstructivism. As the building technology and modelling capability of computers continue to evolve, we are starting to see the transition of reality from physical form to virtual form. As we are gearing up for the launch of the metaverse, we cannot help but think of the concept proposed by Sigmund Freud that dreams are the reality, we live in the physical world in order to collect materials for more fruitful dreams to live in.