Surrealist Geometry as a Design Concept

Abstract

Through his Manifesto of Surrealism, André Breton founded a school of thought that permeated various artistic disciplines, including poetry, painting, sculpture, and film. However, since its inception, surrealism has been largely regarded as being at odds with architecture. This paper seeks to contribute to the discourse led by scholars and architects such as Dalibor Vesely, Bernard Tschumi, and Rem Koolhaas by examining architecture’s reflections on surrealism and introducing the design concept of “surrealist geometry.” Using Breton’s Crisis of the Object as a theoretical framework for understanding public perceptions of the “surrealist object,” I argue that his essays left no architectonic possibility for architecture to develop within surrealism, unlike other 1930s avant-garde artistic movements that evolved alongside architecture such as Russian Constructivism and German Bauhaus. Artistic interpretations of Breton’s initial surrealist manifestos and the rigid parameters imposed on Surrealism limited architectural participation to its minimum, leading Surrealism to stylistic motifs and imagery rather than its foundational premise: the unity of dream and reality.

The proposed design concept of "surrealist geometry" in this research offers a framework for translating surrealist thought—especially its theoretical and representational approaches to the dream world—into architectural form and space. This is achieved by exploring the emotive qualities of geometry and its capacity to evoke the unconscious, memory, and dream. This approach provides a critical counterpoint to the monotony of contemporary global architecture. By integrating surrealist principles into the design framework—exemplified by Isamu Noguchi’s “playscapes” and the “emotional” structures of Daniel Libeskind—this study addresses the architectural, urban, and practical applications of surrealist geometry by reevaluating surrealism’s role in architecture and highlighting its potential as a critical design theory for spatial experimentation and the design process.