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Volume 4,Issue 5

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26 April 2026

A Practical Study on the Transformation of Frank Gehry’s Deconstructivist Architectural Language into 3D Sculptural Creation

Jiayi Wang1 Ling Qiu1*
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1 Guangdong Guangya High School, Guangzhou 510800, Guangdong, China
LNE 2026 , 4(4), 52–56; https://doi.org/10.18063/LNE.v4i4.1932
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Taking architect Frank Gehry as the main perspective, this thesis further studies his deconstructive architectural language that can be reflected in spatial creation. It summarizes some practices and ideas aimed at transforming abstract theoretical knowledge into three-dimensional sculptural creative practice. During the research process of this study, excessive focus or neglect of issues within a specific scope often arises. For instance, many relevant papers on deconstructivity characteristics place greater emphasis on analyzing these logical characteristics from architectural form to design methods within the theoretical field. There is relatively less exploration regarding actual practice, which also has an element of speculative nature for creators and practitioners. Based on our comprehensive analysis and design work after carefully studying Gehry’s overall design theories as representative works, by extracting natural organic curvature structures within the model and gradually completing the formal transformations of planar paper through various folding forms, and finally forming the basis for creating sculptures as visual entities, we analyze this thesis, thereby achieving a unified integration of fragments. Moreover, after obtaining certain proportional sizes, when designing using paraffin material, it is possible to achieve organic curved shapes during creation that closely conform to the deconstructive structural combination of modern times. Finally, internal supporting structures such as mesh, irregular metals, and thermoplastic elastic substances may allow more reasonable applications. Therefore, during the actual production process, the advantages will be fully demonstrated to effectively create overall stability. This study summarizes the creative ideas of sculptural transformation of architectural language, points out the limitations of this creation, and provides references for the large-scale creation and digital practice of deconstructive sculpture in the future.

Keywords
Frank Gehry
Deconstructivism
Architectural language
Sculpture creation
Form transformation
Wax material
Form extraction
References

[1] Busch F, 2021, Frank Gehry: The Architecture of Deconstruction. Taschen.

[2] Gehry F, 2005, Why Houses? Yale University Press, Yale.

[3] Jencks C, 1984, The Language of Post-Modern Architecture. Rizzoli.

[4] Salinger M, 2018, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilbao: A Landmark of Deconstructivist Architecture. Journal of Architectural History, 75(2): 189–212.

[5] Sudjic D, 2020, Language of Things: A Memoir of Design. Profile Books.

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