Koldo Lus Arana

Brought up in a family of architects, the Belgian artist François Schuiten has created since the late 70s graphic and narrative works of increasing complexity. In the saga Les Cités Obscures, created along with writer Benoît Peeters, both authors dig into the limits of architecture and style through metropolises that revise the architectural and literary utopias from Piranesi to Verne or Ferriss. If the stories told by Schuiten and Peeters refer both to Verne and Borges, their environments render a decimononic futurism bred in the esthetics of the XIXth century. Taking as a starting point the urban fantasies of the turn of the century, Schuiten offers a revision and development, up to an urban scale, of the Art Nouveau style of his home town, Brussels. The article presents an analysis of Schuiten and Peeters’s Art Nouveau cities in relation to the works of the architects of the late XIXth century, as well as to the future city of the 1920s and the architectural works of his brother, the architect Luc Schuiten.
Key words: fantastic architecture, Art Nouveau, utopia, illustration, comics.

	Resumen La eclosión del estilo. De la ciudad americana a la utopía Art Nouveau en la obra de Schuiten- Peeters (y Schuiten).
	Criado en una familia de arquitectos, el dibujante belga François Schuiten ha desarrollado desde la década de 1970 una obra gráfica y narrativa de creciente complejidad. En la saga de Les cités obscures, creada junto con el escritor Benoît Peeters, ambos autores indagan en los límites de la arquitectura y el estilo, a través de metrópolis que revisan las utopías arquitectónicas y literarias desde Piranesi a Verne o Ferriss. Si en lo argumental la obra conjunta de Schuiten y Peeters bebe de Verne o Borges, en lo visual tenderá hacia un futurismo decimonónico desarrollado a partir de la estética del siglo XIX en el que Schuiten ofrece una revisión y desarrollo a escala urbana del Art Nouveau de su Bruselas natal. El artículo presenta un análisis de las ciudades Art Nouveau de Schuiten y Peeters en relación con la obra de los arquitectos de finales del siglo XIX, así como de la ciudad futura de la década de 1920 y con el trabajo de su hermano, el arquitecto Luc Schuiten. Palabras claves: arquitectura fantástica, Art Nouveau, utopía, ilustración, cómic.

	Abstract The eclosion of style: from the american city to the Art Nouveau utopia in the work of Schuiten – Peeters (and Schuiten).
	Brought up in a family of architects, the Belgian artist François Schuiten has created since the late 70s graphic and narrative works of increasing complexity. In the saga Les Cités Obscures, created along with writer Benoît Peeters, both authors dig into the limits of architecture and style through metropolises that revise the architectural and literary utopias from Piranesi to Verne or Ferriss. If the stories told by Schuiten and Peeters refer both to Verne and Borges, their environments render a decimononic futurism bred in the esthetics of the XIXth century. Taking as a starting point the urban fantasies of the turn of the century, Schuiten offers a revision and development, up to an urban scale, of the Art Nouveau style of his home town, Brussels. The article presents an analysis of Schuiten and Peeters’s Art Nouveau cities in relation to the works of the architects of the late XIXth century, as well as to the future city of the 1920s and the architectural works of his brother, the architect Luc Schuiten. Key words: fantastic architecture, Art Nouveau, utopia, illustration, comics.