1990’s: Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao by Frank Gehry

1990s-Guggenheim-Museum-Bilbao-Frank-Gehry

History

Frank Gehry was commissioned by the Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) local government to design a Guggenheim museum. The idea was approved by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum was completed in 1997. Dynamic forms of the building, both externally and internally, require innovative design tools, such as custom-programmed CAD software. They also need to be built from innovative materials, such as titanium, that would allow the flow of the form.

Designed by

Frank Owen Gehry, (born Frank Owen Goldberg; 28 February 1929) – Canadian and American architect and designer created the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao,. Frank Gehry is one of world’s most iconic architects of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Dimensions

Site area: 32,500m2

Materials

The museum is clad in glass, titanium, and limestone. Frank Gehry’s innovative designs require innovative approaches to material so that dynamic lines and wavy shapes can be built.

Elements and Principles

Frank Ghery said: “There is a backlash against me and everyone who has done buildings that have movement and feeling.”

Form is the Main Element, and Movement is the absolutely dominant principle of the Guggenheinm Museum (as well as many other works by Frank Gehry). The unusual 3-dimensional forms of the building are visually dynamic and create the atmosphere of movement. Gehry calls this type of design “liquid architecture”.