Paris's 2 Art Nouveau buildings are both by Hector Guimard, the architect who gave the movement its most recognisable Parisian expression. The Castel Béranger displays the full Art Nouveau vocabulary at residential scale: whiplash ironwork balconies, glazed ceramic panels, carved stone that flows rather than sits, and a facade where no two windows are quite the same. Every detail — from the door handles to the staircase — participates in a total design vision.
The Hôtel Guimard, the architect's own residence, is a more restrained but equally integrated example: a house designed as a single coherent organism where structure, ornament, and interior are inseparable. Together, these buildings represent Art Nouveau at its purest — architecture that rejected the machine age in favour of organic curves, handcraft, and the unity of all arts.
