Architecture and sculpture both exist in three dimensions. Architecture often attempts to play with several spatial and formal concepts but the extent of this experimentation is often limited by engineering constraints. Alternately, sculpture, in a way, is a medium with which formal and spatial tests can be performed keeping aesthetics in mind without ergonomic limitations. Both have a responsibility to address the physical space and showcase experiments of form, scale and materiality. Unarguably, architecture must also confront some functional duties in addition to pure aesthetics. But lately, advancements in the fields of technology and engineering has freed the discipline from most of these limitations.

In recent years, the connection between art, architecture, and sculpture have, in many cases, become inextricably bound to each other in a kind of symbiotic relationship. For some, architecture appears relevant to the 21st century only when it strikes as an abstract sculpture. A strange feature that can be noticed in a certain strand of architecture in the past two decades is that it is aesthetically sculptural; it either describes itself as sculptural or has been described as sculptural by the artist. It can be safe to say that numerous architects, specifically the ‘deconstructivists’ such as Frank O. Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind, pay a greater regard to form and material experiments. As a result, the fine line between architecture and sculpture is disappearing. Architecture has become more sculptural, and sculptures have become more architectural and interactive.

Architecture, truly, is an art form, but are the ideas and influences exchanged between sculpture and architecture an equal, two-way street? An intimate relationship exists between sculpture and architecture. They are interdependent disciplines and there remains a constant interaction between the two, specifically when one considers the realm of monumental sculpture. A prime example of this is the Vessel, a monumental sculpture, whose inspiration stems from the traditional step well architecture of India. Further, sculpture is the precedent of architecture. Creating a to-scale model can easily be assumed as ‘sculpting’ forms and spaces. ‘Sculpture’ provides greater creative liberty to an artist/architect or individual; it is an experimentation ground. This freedom allows for the ideation of unique shapes, concepts and forms that eventually leads to a self sustaining feedback loop that influences and binds art, architecture and sculpture together.