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How Surrealism Has Shaped Contemporary Architecture

How Surrealism Has Shaped Contemporary Architecture - Image 1 of 4
1974 installation of Mae West’s Face which May be Used as a Surrealist Apartment by Salvador Dali. Image © Flickr user Torrenega licensed under CC BY 2.0

In 1924 writer André Breton penned the Surrealist Manifesto, which called to destabilize the divides between dreams and reality, between objectivity and subjectivity. For many architects who had been—and continue to be—interested in the fundamental role of the built environment, Breton’s surrealist thinking provided a rich resource to examine the role architecture plays in forming reality. Since then, from Salvador Dali and Frederick Kiesler to Frank Gehry, Surrealism has profoundly shaped architecture in the 20th century.

Video: Salvador Dali Museum / HOK

The first to use this type of free-form geodesic geometry in the United States, HOK’s Salvador Dali Museum is a Floridian landmark in St. Petersburg known for housing one of the most important collections of a single artist’s work in the world. Referring to it as “The Dali,” architect Yann Weymouth and museum director Dr. Hank Hine discuss their intentions behind the building’s design in this interview with TheCoolist.com.