Biomorphic Forms
Biomorphic Forms
As Frank Lloyd Wright matured in his practice, he coined the term “organic architecture” to describe his increasing desire to integrate the manmade and natural environments. In 1937, his Fallingwater home epitomized the concept: a house literally integrated with a waterfall. But even that design found its form in a series of rectangular shapes. Later, he would achieve a less rectilinear vision with his 1959 Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Today, architects as diverse as Frank Gehry, Jeanne Gang, and Herzog & de Mueron are thinking even further outside of the box and finding inspiration in fluid, organic forms.
Thanks to computer-aided design and construction technologies, these architects are able to create structures with more biomorphic (life-shaped) forms, forwarding Wright’s vision of organic architecture to a curvaceous new plane. From sails to waves to nests, these forms bring the geometries of the natural world into our architectural landscape.