Modern Academy For Engineering And Technology

Faculty of Engineering
Architecture Department

Art’s Influence On
Architecture
Hossam Al-Dein Mostafa Helmy – Sec 3
Amr Youssef Mourad – Sec 3
Essam Metwally Mohammed – Sec 3
 ART TO ARCHITECTURE
It was once thought that architecture, sculpture, and
painting belonged together. Indeed, they were
admirably intertwined at various points in history—in
the ancient cultures of East and West, and in the
European Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.
With the rise of the merchant class to power in the
19th century, the plastic arts began to lose their
interdependency and to separate. Part of this was
due to the general fragmentation of society into
competing social units. Part was the fragmentation of
knowledge into various specialized fields, of which
architecture, sculpture, and painting were, in the
arts, prime examples. And no small part was
economic. Buildings became real estate that often
trades hands for money, as are paintings and
sculptures. Today, it is rare to find these three arts
united in any but the most tentative way.
Ironically, perhaps, their separation enabled them to
influence each other in ways they never did before. It
was not until the beginning of the 20th century that
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 we find examples of paintings and sculptures having
a direct influence on architectural design. It is as
though their independence from each other gave
them an intellectual and artistic parity, and allowed
architects and painters (later, photographers,
filmmakers, and video artists) to learn from each
other’s works. Before this separation, it is impossible
to think of an architect who adopted in his (they
were all male, back then) work, methods or forms
from a painter. After the separation of the arts, this
influence began to appear, and is sure to increase in
the future.
The examples offered here are only the most obvious

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 Painting by Theo van Doesburg (1918) and plan for the Barcelona Pavilion,
by Mies van der Rohe (1927):

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 Painting by Kasimir Malevich (1915) and Design by Zaha Hadid for the
Media Park, Dusseldorf (c.1990)

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 Painting by a Paramount studio artist for War of the Worlds (2005) and
“Spider” Constructions by Hernan Diaz Alonzo (2007):

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 Peter Eisenman’s early house designs drew from the sculptures of Sol
LeWiit

Reference :
http://lebbeuswoods.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/art-to-architecture/
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