These Four Cars Highlight The Unique Architectural Background Of Robert Opron
I can remember clearly the first time I saw a Citroën SM, but not my exact age. I was 10 or 11 years old when I met one, I know that; it sat hunkered down as though it had landed from outer space, or at least somewhere far from typical traffic. There was something so alien about its form as an automobile, and yet its silhouette was both organic and familiar. It appeared had been cultivated and grown rather than constructed. Many years later while researching the SM, I discovered that its designer, Robert Opron, had trained as an architect. This didn’t come as a surprise.
Opron attended the infamous École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied architecture and art. After graduation, he worked as a draftsman in the fabrication and aviation industries before landing a job at Simca, the now defunct French car manufacturer. An abrupt encounter with Flaminio Bertoni led to Opron leaving Simca for Citroën, and while Bertoni was known as the sculptor of the divine Citroën DS, Opron was to bring Citroën in a different direction.
“The dolphin, the leopard, the swift, they each move at a speed consistent with their environment, each using a minimum of energy. What a great lesson for a stylist” – Robert Opron
It is clear that Opron, along with many of his architectural contemporaries, admired the design in the natural world and allowed it to influence his work in the constructed one. However, it was not a literal imitation of the aesthetics of nature, more so an appreciation for the purity of purpose in nature. Students are taught in the first weeks of architecture school that form follows function; provided the function is pure, the form will be beautiful.
By examining a number of Robert Opron’s designs, we can see this ethos, and we can also compare them to other notable works from accomplished architects in their typical medium.
Simca Fulgur
While this may look like a cross between George Jetson’s car and the Homer, it did in fact herald a new era of car design on Earth. Consider the wheel spats, the central batsman’s crease, the bubble greenhouse, and note too how alien this would have looked back in 1958. This was futurist architecture on well hidden wheels; a moon rover brought to four-wheeled pedestrian service instead. The sketches and mock-ups are works from Czech architect Jan Kaplický.
Alpine A310
Opron had a tough act to follow when tasked with penning a replacement for the legendary Alpine A110. Discarding the flowing curves of the rally-bred A110, Opron carved a brutalist gothic revival on wheels with the A310. With angular planes, flush metal inlays, deep-dish multi-spoke wheels, the spirit of Carlo Scarpa is embodied in many of the features of this French coupé. Scarpa was known for making striking modern interventions to Classical buildings, with an eye on modern details using classical craftsmanship, and Opron committed a very similar act in the lineage of Alpine. The interiors for comparison were designed by Carlo Scarpa.
Alfa Romeo SZ
The SZ is brutalism at its most brutal. Wearing a high shoulder line with squared off edges in abundance, and a grille that resembled a snarling mouth of angry teeth, this was undoubtedly an aggressive piece of design for a company renowned for its curves. Sitting on an almost comically short wheelbase, the SZ was only as long as it needed to be, allowing the nimble platform to change direction quickly, producing huge g-forces for a road going car. The Sprint Zagato possesses a geometry that some find oppressive, not unlike William Pereira’s Geisel Library at University of California San Diego. Both designs would have faced derision from critics, and yet both these pieces perform their functions supremely well.
Citroën SM
The beauty of the SM was born from its design brief. The execs at Citroën wanted a new GT car that could take four adults from Paris to the South of France, at speed and in comfort on a single tank of fuel. The resultant design defied all convention for the era. Sporting a Kamm tail and a front track that was wider than the rear, the SM was the antithesis of its muscle car contemporaries.
The teardrop profile allowed it to slip through the air with minimal drag—economy and speed were the impetus for its existence, and an appealing shape was a consequence of that when the task was passed to Opron. Much like Eero Saarinen’s TWA Terminal at JFK, many assume it was a piece of pretty sculpture simply for the sake of being aesthetically pleasing. In fact, both serve a purpose, and the distinctive forms that came about as the solution were achievements in both function and form.
Image Sources:
Geisel Library: 1, 2
Alfa SZ: 1, 2
SM: 1, 2
A310: 1, 2
Simca Fulgur: 1, 2
Jan Kaplický: 1, 2, 3
TWA Terminal: 1, 2
Carlo Scarpa: 1, 2, 3


