Who inspires who..Art or Architecure?

People often say art inspires architecture, but is it really so..?

Art and architecture are much related in terms of its visual appearance and the experience it provides. But what does art and architecture actually mean? What’s the difference between the two of them?

Art is the vast range of activities that creates visual, auditory, and performative artworks. It’s a form of communication, displaying what the artist intends to show, whereas architecture is the art as well as the science of building and designing structures. The difference between both the terms is very theoretical. We can say that Art and Architecture both are oceans which are part of each other in some ways and entirely different in other. Just like the three forms of art, Dan Rice stated:"painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you walk around, and architecture is art you can walk through.”

Just like how the difference between the two terms ‘art’ and ‘architecture’ is blurred, the question “who takes inspiration from whom” is also just as blur. The architectural piece by Gerald Reitveld – ‘schroder house’ is an example for architecture inspired by art, Reitvald was inspired by the painting called ‘composition of colours’ by Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian.

composition of colours by Theo Van Doesburg (1918) and Piet Mondrian(1920).

Schroder house by Gerald Reitveld.

There are many such examples, one of them is also 'The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao' by Frank Gehry and the painting 'glass on table 1' by George Braque.The forms in the structure do not have any reason nor are governed by any geometric law.The forms of the structures were made in a software 'catia' which allowed designs and calculations which were not possible during that time to be possible. If we go further into history, we can find many more examples of situations where art and architecture go hand in hand.

So the question shouldn't be 'who inspired who' it should be how are they so different yet so similar?.

Just as Arne Jacobson once said "If a building becomes architecture, it becomes art."