Introduction

Frank Gehry is a notable Canadian-American architect known for

postmodern-designs of buildings. He has designed a lot of famous
buildings with unique materials in his entire life. For instances, dancing
house in Prague, Louis Vuitton in Paris, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los
Angeles and Guggenheim Museum in Spain have become world-
renowned attractions. His use of postmodern shapes and unique
fabrications was amazed by the world and has made him become the
most acclaimed architect in 20th century. He was awarded the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 1989, AIA gold medal of American Institute of
Architects in 1995 and Twenty-five Year Awardof American Institute of
Architects in 2012.
Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg on the 28th of February 1929. He
studied at Los Angeles City College and graduated from the University
of Southern California's School of Architecture. When he was a child, he
spent a lot of time with his grandmother to build little imaginary wooden
cities with scraps of wood from his grandfather’s hardware stores. His
grandmother had played a vital role in nurturing his enthusiasm for
building. He also spent most of his teenage time in his grandfather’s
store. This is the reason of Gehry’s utilitarian approach to the field, using
corrugated steel, chain-link and even unpainted plywood in his early
career. His selection of materials such as corrugated metal has made
his designs an even crude aesthetic. In his early work he built unique
structure is his residence in Santa Monica. He converted his ordinary
house by fundamentally stripped two-story home down with chain-link
and corrugated steel frame around and complete with unsymmetrical
projection of glass and steel rods. The completed building has
encouraged him to combine unusual materials and unique design. It is
undeniable that this consistent aesthetic has made him one of the most
recognizable architects among others.
 Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao Spain

Built from
1991-
1997

the Area:
biggest 265000
museum square
in Spain Guggenheim feet
Museum,
Bilbao Spain

Cost:
Art
US$89
Museum
million

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a modern art museum which was designed by

Frank Gehry and established on 18th October 1997. It costs approximately $89
million and its area is 265000 square feet. It is also one of the biggest museum
in Spain and the main icon of Bilbao. It is located alongside the Nervion River,
which runs the Bilbao City to the Cantabrian Sea. The Guggenheim Museum
Bilbao is a steel frame building with limestone, titanium sheets and glass. When
the museum opened to the public in 1997, it was acclaimed by the world as the
most spectacular building of 20th century in the style of Deconstructivism.
Deconstructed building is absent of continuity, symmetry or harmony and it
always give impression of fragmentation. Hebert Muschamp complimented its
“mercurial brilliance” in New York Times Magazine and Philip Johnson
mentioned it as “the greatest building of our time. Besides, cirtic Calvin
Tomkins also described it as a “fantastic dream ship of undulating form in a
cloak of titanium”.

Gehry and his team faced the difficulty in designing this building as they did not
have any building design program at that time. Therefore, they had to find a
different way to exist the program and fortunately they found out by using
airplane fuselage designing programs to design the building. This is because it
provided the chance to the architects to shape the architecture and clarify
elements for construction of the building. This 3D technology had made them
successfully used the full capacity of computer-assisted design in this building
and it was also a starting point for a different age in architecture as well as
interior design.

What was driving Gehry to design Guggenheim Museum is the rise of

Deconstructivism. Gehry was invited by Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
to take part in international competition to design the museum and he became
the winner. This is because he had showed great daring to use computer-
assisted design technology that helped to transform his poetic visions into
impressive building. Besides, Gehry also showed his creativity and innovation
to design building in eccentric shapes and discordant forms that often denied
the laws of gravity by ignoring traditional principles of proportion. Gehry used
the software which is supplied by the French aerospace firm Dassault to change
Euclidean right angles to flowing asymmetrical shapes. For the exterior skin of
the building, he chose titanium plates and roughly 33000 thin titanium plates
provide organic and rough effect. He also added another two materials which
are glass and limestone as these reflective materials can reflect light. The
juxtaposed convex and concave surfaces with limestone, titanium and glass
change the colours of the outer skin depending on light conditions and the
weather, resulting in uniquely striking effect. It is undeniable that the materials
Gehry chose are match and harmonize ideally, creating a super great visual
impact in architectural design.
 Exterior of the Museum

When the museum is viewed from the river, the sky or the bridge, the highest
part is crowned by a big skylight in the shape of a metal flower covering the
Autrium, strongly resembles a lotus flower. It has become one of the most
special characteristic of the building. People can appreciate a lot of artworks by
different artists such as Jeff Koons, Yves Kelvin, Louise Bourgeois, Fujiko
Nakaya or Eduardo Chillida when they walk outside the museum.

Jeff Koon’s artwork-Puppy

 Louise Bourgeois’s artwork-spider sculpture,Maman

The building has a highest room which is 50 metres high makes up the central
atrium hall while the biggest room, measure 130 metres long and 30 metres
wide provides spacious space for enormous sculptures. Once inside the hall,
there will be an overwhelming feeling of space when enter the lobby. People
will be surprisingly amazed when they enter the atrium. The atrium is an ample
space covered by a great skylight and the light floods in almost every angles.
Inside the atrium, large and curved glass curtain walls that connect the inside
and the outside cause the incredible curves of the building and impress the
visitors. The three levels of the museum are constructed around the Atrium and
are connected by staircases, curved walkways, titanium and glass lifts. As an
exhibition space, the Atrium plays a crucial role as an axis for 20 galleries, some
with irregular, organic lines and some orthogonally shaped with classical
proportions. They all have skylights providing natural lights which even reaches
the ground floor. Three different types of gallery spaces to exhibit permanent
collection, temporary collection and collection of selected living artists were
designed to fulfil the requirement of Guggenheim Foundation. The largest
gallery which is Arcelor Gallery permanently exhibits Richard Serra’s “The
Matter of Time”, a collection of seven undulating weathering steel sculptures
The feeling of space is lost when enter the gallery for Serra’s sculpture as 200
ton, 32 metre long sculpture made the space oppress but surprisingly it is like
the sculpture is not that large anymore. It is like Serra’s minimalism is going
hand in hand with Gehry’s deconstructivism by creating this feeling of space. It
is undeniable that the close harmony between the architectural shapes and the
content of each gallery makes orientation easier within the museum, allowing
visitors to view the exhibition space from other perspectives Besides, the
Museum also comprises an auditorium, a bookstore, a cafeteria, a visitor
orientation room, two restaurants, a one Michelin star haute cuisine restaurant
and a bistro in addition to the gallery space and a separate office building.

Richard Serra’s sculpture-The Matter of Time

Bilbao effect

The Gugegenheim Musem has successfully attract millions of visitors to Bilbao

and the city is given a new life. The Bilbao effect has proved that art and culture
can help to boost the struggling economy of a region.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles

Built
from
1999-
2003

one of the
largest Walt
Costs
performing Disney
$274
art centres Concert
million
in United Hall
States

Locate
in Los
Angeles

Walt Disney Concert Hall which was designed by Frank Gehry established on
24th October 2003. It is undeniable that the hall is an internationally recognised
landmark in Los Angeles as it is acclaimed for its distinctive architecture and
excellent acoustics. It is one of the largest performing art centres in United
States and also the most acoustically sophisticated concert hall in the world. It
is located at 111 south grand avenue which is conspicuous in downtown Los
Angeles.
 Exterior look-Iconic silver sail

Under the effect of Deconstructivism, Gehry designed an exterior consist of

angled and undulating forms. At first, the building was decided to made from
stone. After receiving much acclaim for his titanium building in Bilbao, Gehry
changed the original material from stone to metal. 12500 pieces of reflective
and stainless steels which can engage light were used to build the curving skin
of the building. The areas outside of the rectangle were made of stone and the
glass surface acts as liaison between the various volumes. The hall’s sweeping
and metallic surfaces represents Gehry’s style, which the rules of harmony and
symmetry is defied in this building. The external edges and protrusions are
highly reminiscent of silver sails, billow and water in general, symbolising
musical movement and the motion of Los Angeles.

Walt Disney Concert Hall Lobby

Gehry was told by Lilian that she wanted the hall to feel like a little old cottage
in England covered with vines. Therefore, the well-lit warm interior design
begins with the lobby. The lobby which is opening onto the sidewalk is
visualised by Gehry’s team as a transparent, light filled “living room for the city”.
Due to Lilian Disney’s love for gardens, douglas fir tree like sculptural forms
was designed rising through the lobby, showing a dreamlike and otherworldly
feel.

Douglas fir tree sculptural form

Skylight in otherworldly lobby

In contrast to the stainless steel exterior, the centrepiece of the interior of the
building was lined with fir wood and designed to symbolise the hull of a boat
while the curved wood ceiling was designed to represent the sails of the boat,
conveying warmth and intimacy. An auditorium with evocative sculptural forms
of music is designed to achieve an intimate relationship between the orchestra
and audience. The auditorium can seat up to 2265 people, so the auditorium
needs to be designed with extreme care in acoustic quality.
 Concert Hall’s Plan

A 1:10 scale model was used by Gehry and Yasuhisa Toyota to test and study
the acoustics of the auditorium. The frequency of the sound used for testing
was increased to reduce the wavelength by a factor of ten. In order to achieve
full sound coverage from an unamplified orchestra and create the warmest
natural sound, the walls and curved ceilings were constructed in Douglas fir to
amplify the sound. The walls surrounding the hall are made of transparent mesh
to allow sound to pass through and reflect easily. The stage, made from
Alaskan yellow cedar is designed to produce resonance. Moreover, curvilinear
planes of Douglas fir and vineyard style seating brings an intimate view of
musicians from every angle without creating visual obstructions. Besides, this
will also increases the area for sound reflection and delivers remarkably,
reliably live sound.

View of auditorium from the Balcony seating section

 View from Orchestra View seating section

Stage

The most iconic feature in auditorium which draws attention of the audience is
the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Organ, a collaborative design of Manuel J
Rosales, a Los Angeles-based organ designer and Gehry. The distinctive and
unique organ with a bouquet of 6134 curved pipes elongating closely to the
ceiling stands at the front of the hall, bringing stunning visual effect to the
audience.

Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Organ

 A Rose For Lilly

On the third level is the Halls community garden, one of the quietest and most
scheduled gardens in Los Angeles. At the centre of the garden, there is a rose
fountain was designed by Gehry to appreciate Lilian Disney’s support for the
Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Comparison

Both Walt Disney concert hall and Guggenheim Museum have similarities in
terms of exterior appearance, composition and reasoning behind the design.
First of all, they were built to attract attention to the cultural aspects of Los
Angeles and Bilbao.

Next, both of them have same shape of exterior skin which is in curvilinear form
under the style of Deconstructivsm which denies the rules of harmony. Although
the two buildings have same shape of exterior skin, the materials used are not
the same. The material for exterior skin of Guggenheim Museum is titanium
while for Walt Disney Concert Hall is stainless steel. As it always rains in Bilbao,
titanium is used to enable the exterior to appear golden on both sunny and rainy
days with its shimmering gold quality. Gehry chose titanium instead of stainless
steel as “buttery” quality of titanium signifies warmth which is reflected in golden
quality and compared to “coldness” of stainless steel. However for the concert
hall, the exterior walls are constructed with reflective, stainless steel to produce
a clean, dynamic feeling. The reflective stainless steel façade which curve in all
angles is the most striking element that catch sunlight during the day and play
with city lights at night. The movement of the bold curves is allowed through
thin metal panels. Besides, one of the reason Gehry chose stainless steel is it
is more malleable than other materials and the bold curves can be shaped
easily.

In the interior of the spaces the difference is noticeable. The auditorium of Walt
Disney Concert hall resembles hull of a boat while the atrium of Guggenheim
Museum resembles fish scale. Both of them are related to water. The interior
of concert hall is well-lit warmer compared to the atrium of museum. The main
auditorium of concert hall is featured by curved wood ceiling comprising many
individually shaped panels, which are made from Douglas fir wood to create
warmth and intimacy. However, organised three levels in the atrium are
connected by curved walkways, titanium and glass elevators, and staircases to
create an ideal and enormous atmosphere for exhibition. Natural light from
strategically placed glass windows illuminates the interior in order to protect the
artwork from heat, radiation and sun rays.
Interior of atrium
Conclusion

In a nutshell, Gehry’s postmodern design had successfully created a reference

point for art and architecture, which position Los Angeles and Bilbao in the
cultural level. This is because the way of his designing process has changed
from manual to computerised. Therefore, he can produce complex, aesthetic
and unique buildings in the style of deconstructivism with the application of
unconventional materials. The use of computer technology in the process of
conceptualisation, visualisation and design enabled the Guggenheim Museum
to be constructed in a complexity design. This is why it is hailed as an
architectural masterpiece and a spectacular representation of Deconstructivist
movement. After receive much acclaim for his design of the museum, Gehry
used the same way to design Walt Disney Concert Hall and eventually the
building did live up to the world’s expectation.