It felt like 1990 for quite some time there. Frank Gehry It will never end. But now we have the latest figure to define American architecture, or more technically Canadian-American architecture. died At 96 years old, it’s time to ask when exactly his age started. Or rather, which building is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles? Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris? of A radical renovation of his own modest home in Santa Monica What is often cited as the origin of the metallic, intentionally discordant and often alien aesthetic now recognized around the world? According to of B1M video aboveif you want to understand Frank Gehry’s architecture, you should turn to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. And there’s a lot more to it than that.
Guggenheim Bilbao was a challenging project when it was first conceived in the early 1990s, and Bilbao was a challenging environment at the time. Once a prosperous port city, the Basque metropolis had indeed fallen on hard times and was rapidly deindustrializing with few alternative attractions. Bilbao’s tourism history dates back to the mid-19th century, but for many Spaniards, the prospect of the place turning into an international destination seemed remote at best. Still, an ambitious development plan was developed around a branch of New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that included new infrastructure, including the city’s first subway system.
The original Fifth Avenue location was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (the one architect we’ve all heard of, or Gehry’s predecessor in the cultural role of “starchitect”), who had some experience with bold architectural designs. Its shiny, sculptural, curved exterior may be well-known today, but actually constructing its non-Euclidean geometry required technology never before widely adopted in architecture, including the early 3D modeling system CATIA (which, by the way, sponsored this video). The search for the right exterior texture to reflect Bilbao’s typical cloudy skies was also not particularly easy, but we benefited from good timing. Gary decided that titanium could do the job. At that time, the mass retirement of Soviet submarines happened to release a large amount of that material onto the market.
In these technical, political and economic aspects, the Guggenheim Bilbao was a product of its time. Coincidentally, this Bilbao and its accompanying redevelopment actually breathed new life into the city, creating a decades-long “Bilbao effect” for projects around the world with similar goals, some of which included cultural facilities designed by Gehry. as B1M Host Fred Mills says, “Telling a story like this is like reading off a list of things we take for granted today: the idea that museums can be international tourist attractions, technology, 3D design.” And like most architects, Gehry survives not only on the legacy he built, but also on a series of projects he hasn’t yet completed, including the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim Museum, scheduled to open next year.
You can see Photo gallery of Gehry’s other landmark architectural projects guardian.
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Based in Seoul, Colin Mbemust write and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages ​​and cultures. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about cities and a book Stateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the 21st Century. Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter. @Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
