Some curvilinear architecture today

Shuhei Eendo

Springtecture H

Singu-cho, Hyogo, Giappone, 1998

These small public baths are surrounded by school buildings in a park.

The outer shell isn't made of two sheets, but of only one shaped like a curved spiral

Santiago Clatrava

Vigneto Ysios

Laguardia, Spagna, 1998-2001

Concrete, cedar wood and alluminium are the materials used for te construction and the cover.

The roof rests on the rolling bearing walls that give the building an animated image

in contrast to the calm that exudes the environment.

When an architect loves curved lines

Frank Owen Gehry

(Toronto, 1929)

"Architecture should speak of time and place

but yearn for timelessness"

Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spagna, 1991-1997

Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, Stati Uniti, 1987-2003

Hotel Marques de Riscal, Elciego (Alava), Spagna, 2006 

If you want to see the trailer of "Sketches of Frank Gehry" by Sidney Pollack go on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9orvtStdY

Two projects in comparison

Curved Architecture

Casa Milà, Antonio Gaudì, 1905-1912, Barcellona.

The architect uses the curved line as a basic element. It is clearly zoomorphic

and recalls the wave of the sea in its structure, interior and facade.

The whole building is so devoid of straight lines, even plants of the garden

and apartaments follow a curvilinear design.

Straight Architecture

Villa in mattoni, Mies Van der Rohe, 1924, Postdam.

The composition runs only on straight lines arranged in an asymmetrical way.

There are no curved path and it is clear the influence of Neoplasticism movement

on the architect, especially the paintings of Piet Mondrian.

Curved line in architecture

  Guggenheim Museum, F.L. Wright                            Ingalls Rink, Eero Saarinen

The arch is the first curved element that appears in the history of architecture, invented by the Etruscans and then taken over by the Romans. It will become the key figure in the Gothic style (as pointed arch). In art and architecture in the curved line appears in moments of crisis and rupture, in contrast to the polished mastery of the straight line: in the baroque wants to express rebellion against the traditional rules of Renaissance straight perspective; in  the expressionism appears as a protest against the order geometry of rationalism, as well as Wright's organic architecture. At the same Aalto and Saarinen use enveloping curves in critical opposition to the International Style of Le Corbusier.

In architecture, it is worth mentioning the use of curved lines by the Danish architect Jorn Utzon, who in the wake of organic architecture of Asplund and Aalto designed the Sydney Opera House, a project of great complexity. Watch the technique and the clean lines of design, Utzon finds its most effective means of communication in the curved line.

Finally, may be sued Oscar Niemeyer, one of the greatest living architects who chose the curved line and organic as a key element of its architectural language.

Opera House, Jorn Utzon

Museo di arte contemporanea, Oscar Niemeyer


"It's not the right angle that attracts me. Not even the straight, harsh, inflexible line created by man. What attracts me is the curved line, free and sensual. The curved line that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuous course of its rivers, in the clouds of heaven, in the body of his beloved. The whole universe is made of curves. The curved universe of Einstein ......"
(Oscar Niemeyer)

Straight line in architecture

Ville Savoye, Le Corbusier

The use of straight lines in architecture is typical of the Rationalist Movement in the '900. The composition of the buildings is based on primary and regular geometric solids: cube and cuboid. Le Corbusier is one of the greatest exponents of this design. He is also inspired by urban development organization by the Romans, who developed the town around straight streets. In fact, he writes: "The Romans were enlightened legislators, great colonizers, skilled entrepreneurs. Pick a place to settle in a river, drawn with line and square the typical plant of the city straight. They wanted that the city had a pattern clear, orderly, very neat, they wanted to orient and drive the best. The straight line expresses very well the severe nature of the Roman Empire. "

Straight and curved in a project about some skyscrapers

A contemporary architectural project explores the concepts of straight and curved

through a spectacular area with three main elements which take their name

from these two adjectives. The project is located in Milan and is scheduled for 2015

(year of the Expo which will be held in Milan) and promises to change

the skyline of the city in an important way.

The main project consist of 3 towers, ironically called "the straight", "the croocked" and "the curved". The croocked skyscraper was designed by Zaha Hadid and as the main element has a structure that seems to twist on itself for 190 meters and 44 floors. As regards, however, the straight and curved the plan is that the former is about 220 meters high (practically will be the tallest in Italy) on 51 floors and is signed by Arata Isozaki, while the second will be 70 meters high total with 35 floors. This was designed by Daniel Libeskind and is probably the most distinctive and original of the three development plans for that, with increasing height, are staggered so as to make it look like you're bending the skyscraper. This tower also will be used not only offices, but will host a hotel and some luxury private residences.

These three skyscrapers will rise instead of the halls of the old trade center, in a very central area of Milan. At the heart of the new district will be built a new underground metro line 5 to get you to "the straight" and "the croocked" directly.

Curved bridges

Meyer, C. (1970), “Analysis and Design of Curved Box-Girder Bridges”

Structural Engineering and Structural Mechanics Report No. UC SESM  70-22, University of California, Berkeley.

The history of curved bridges and the highway geometric requirements of these structures are discussed. The report outlines the methods developed over the years for analyzing curved bridges. These include straight beam approximation, curved beam theory, refined curved beam theories, plate and grillage analysis methods, finite element analysis, and the finite strip method analysis of curved folded plates. Refined curved beam theories are required to analyze thin walled box sections that can experience warping of the cross section ha relatively thick walls, warping is generally small and ordinary curved beam theory can be used successfully.

Two methods of analysis are developed in the form of computer programs. The first program, FINLAPA2, uses the finite element method. The second program, CURSTR, uses the finite strip method of curved folded plates.

Take from: “Development of design specifications and commentary for horizontally curved concrete box-girder bridges” in http://books.google.it/books?id=1PX_3LiDNaAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false