Reference no: EM133500408

Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain is one of the most famous and distinctive examples of contemporary architecture. By the time Gehry received the commission, he had a number of cultural institutions to his credit and was developing an international reputation for producing consistently innovative work. Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1929, this Los Angeles-based architect received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989. Important early projects by Gehry include his remodeled bungalow (begun 1977) in Santa Monica, California, the Vitra Design Museum (1989) in Germany (below) and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum (1990-93) at the University of Minnesota.

The Guggenheim Bilbao was also part of an ambitious urban renewal program conceived by the Basque regional government. An aging port and industrial center, the city had entered a period of significant economic decline during the 1980s. Gehry, who started his career in the 1960s, developed a personal aesthetic gradually, discovering exhilarating ways to shatter and re-assemble architectural forms. As most architects do, he began with the structure's most basic program. After determining the size and shape of the interiors, he melded the forms together, arranging them into a lively sculptural whole. Though his earlier work, sometimes categorized as Deconstructivism, featured everyday building materials like chain link, corrugated metal and plywood, by the late 1980s Gehry had refined his vision, using more costly surfaces to produce unexpectedly sensuous designs. Aided by sophisticated computer software, his most daring projects evoke aspects of the Italian Baroque style. Like the drapery folds that animate some pieces of 17th century figurative sculpture, Gehry's more striking works juxtapose elements that bend, ripple and unfurl.

The Guggenheim Bilbao opened to the public in 1997. The reception to Gehry's unorthodox design was nothing less than ecstatic, drawing international acclaim from fellow architects and critics, as well as from tourists who throng here from throughout the world. Gehry sees architecture as an art. He manipulates the constraints of the project, then expresses his creation. For Gehry, expression is essential in architecture; buildings cannot be faceless, like in modernism. Thus, he approaches each building as a sculptural object, each piece of architecture as a painting. For Gehry, a big problem of modernism is the loss of a sense of humanity. He believes that people are the most important thing in architecture. Thus, Gehry makes expressive buildings to humanize architecture, enrich the human experience, and create places that people like to be in.

For this weeks discussion answer the following questions and remember to post a peer response.

Question 1: How do you think Gehry "humanizes" architecture in this design?

Question 2: What does the form of the building spark in your imagination? What does it remind you of?