On social media I see questions asking for assistance about design. Such as "how do you design this...." Yet really I read "how do I make this look appealing, appropriate to the space it resides in. Quick answer, it comes down to proportions, scale and rhythm. I started a few posts on FB about such topics and broke down older pieces of ironwork of how they followed initial design concepts.
Guimard’s Gateway of the Castel Béranger
When studying the gate way, it’s important to first focus on the opening itself, not the ironwork…yet. The wrought elements are designed with consideration to the architecture, their rhythm and proportion guided by the geometry of the opening.
While designing some questions to ask yourself: Do you consider what you are designing as proportional to where it is being installed? How does the surrounding elements brick, stone, line, curve affect the visual and physical balance of the piece? Every design decision “should”, or rather “could,” be measured against the relative space, size, and proportion of the environment it occupies. This gate, being Art Nuevo, can be distraction in the theme so taking a step back we will take a study of the space it occupies.
By studying the architectural opening, we begin to understand how Guimard designed his work to fit within the structure. The dimensions of the brick, the curve of the arch, and the vertical scale of the entry all inform the ironwork’s flow and tension. These relationships create harmony between the functional structure and the decorative design, an integration of material and architecture that defines Guimard’s approach.
A few notes I took looking at the space:
