The house of the ’80: escultura e arquitetura na casa de hóspedes Winton, de Frank Gehry

Abstract

This paper analyzes and discusses the constraints and conceptual influences (architectural and artistic) that led architect Frank Gehry to change the way he design in the early 1980. The object propose to study these phenomena is the Winton guest house, designed between 1982 and 1985. The oeuvre is considered a key work in the evolution of the architect’s creative process and was defined by Philip Johnson as the ‘80s archetype house. The small building has been addressed by critics (and its author, too) to considerations of a work of art, a sculpture. In 2008 the small house was dismantled and transferred to a new location to serve as exhibition space. However, it was auctioned in 2015 and will again be disassembled and transferred to another location and will serve another use, both remain unknown. This transformation of the house into a “mobile object”, much like a sculpture than a house, can be regarded as a statement of its current existence as a work of art, the paper, however, takes this discussion to the time of work pregnancy in order to better understand the paths trodden by the architect to design such an oeuvre. Keywords: arts and architecture, Philip Johnson, architectural composition.