In 1898 Guimard began one of his most elegant examples of Art Nouveau design, the Maison Coilliot. A tribute to one of his favored materials, the building was a shop and living quarters for a ceramic craftsman. Simultaneously paying homage to a craftsman and his craft, the Maison Coilliot was truly an Art Nouveau creation. Beautifully combining symmetry and asymmetry, Guimard manages to execute a faηade perfectly in line with the tenets of his style yet maintain a feeling of balance and harmony pleasing to the eye. Splitting the faηade into two unequal bays provides the necessary asymmetry, while an organically shaped transom lights gives the fenestration an organic flare. The whole composition is accented by flowing sculpture in the ceramic glazed stonework. Once again ironwork and glazing adopt the whiplash motif, and the structure of the cantilevered roof bows out like the limbs of a tree to catch the canopy. Accenting the whole thing is a ceramic sign, split by the asymmetrical structure, painted in the graphic style of the Art Nouveau movement. An elegantly interlocking of void and solid frames a space for a third floor balcony. Rather modern in its execution, this fluid use of space is sculpted by a fenestrated wall set at twenty degrees to the faηade of the building. Built near the end of his career, the Maison Coilliot is arguably Guimards most elegant execution of the Art Nouveau style.
