Frank Owen Gehry

FRANK GEHRY WAS born in Toronto,

Canada, in 1929
At the age of 17, he moved with his
family to Los Angeles, California and
studied architecture at the University
of Southern California.
Later, he studied city Planning at MAGGIES CENTRE,
DUNDEE, SCOTLAND
Harvard University.
He established his own firm in 1962 in
Los Angeles.

VITRA DESIGN MUSEUM,

WEIL EM RHEIM,
GERMANY

BIOGRAPHY
 Since that time, he has designed
public and private buildings in
America, Japan and Europe.
Gehrys work has earned him several
of the most significant awards in the
architectural field. Including the Gehry tower,
Pritzker Architectural Prize. Hanover,
Germany

The dancing house,

Prague, Czech republic

BIOGRAPHY
"Every building is by its very nature a sculpture. You can't help
it. Sculpture is a three-dimensional object and so is a building.
Frank O. Gehry

I approach each building as a sculptural object, a spatial

container, a space with light and air, a response to context and
appropriateness of feeling and spirit. To this container, this
sculpture, the user begins his baggage, his program, and
interacts with it to accommodate his needs. If he cant do that,
Ive failed.
Frank O. Gehry

In spite of changes in Gehrys design over the years, his

approach to a building as a sculpture retains.

DESIGN STYLE
 Gehrys architecture has undergone a marked evolution
from the plywood and corrugated-metal vernacular of his
early works to the distorted but pristine concrete of his
later works. However, the works retain a deconstructed
aesthetic that fits well with the increasingly disjointed
culture to which they belong.

Most recently, Gehry has combined sensuous curving

forms with complex deconstructive massing, achieving
significant new results.

DESIGN STYLE
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
The Basque government commissioned Frank Gehry to design this new
museum, affiliated with the Guggenheim Foundation. It was conceived as
a means of redeveloping the city of Bilbao. Other projects contributing to
this aim have been completed or are in the works, many by other world-
famous architects, including the Sondica Airport, city's airport by
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, a new Conference and Performing
Arts Center, designed by Federico Soriano, the construction of a
metropolitan railway and underground transportation system, designed
by Sir Norman Foster, and a new pedestrian bridge crossing the river at
Uribitarte, also the work of Calatrava.
Location: BILBAO, SPAIN
Date:1997
ConstructionSystem: STEEL FRAME, TITANIUM SHEATHING
Frank Gehry 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.

ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES

 Frank Gehry has
designed other iconic
buildings in the similar
spirit of liquid
architecture.

REPLICAS, CONTEMPORARY
INTERPRETATIONS AND INFLUENCES
 The museum is clad in glass, titanium, and limestone. Frank
Gehrys innovative designs require innovative approaches to
material so that dynamic lines and wavy shapes can be built.

MATERIALS
 Campo The river
Volantin walk
Footbridge

Puente De La
Salve

N
On one side it runs down to the waterside of the Nervin River, 16
meters below the level of the rest of the city of Bilbao. One end is
pierced through by the huge Puente de La Salve, one of the main access
routes into the city.

LOCATION
The museum was opened as
part of a revitalization effort
for the city of Bilbao and for
the Basque Country. Almost
immediately after its
opening, the Guggenheim
Bilbao became a popular
tourist attraction, drawing
visitors from around the
globe. It was widely credited
with "putting Bilbao on the
map".
HIGHLIGHTER FOR BILBAO
 The building, sited as it is in a
port town, is intended to
resemble a ship. Its brilliantly
reflective panels resemble fish
scales, echoing the other
organic (and, in particular, fish-
like) forms that recur commonly
in Gehry's designs, as well as
the river Nervin upon which
the museum sits. They also
cause the building to appear to
change shape throughout the
day when viewed from the
street.
THE CONCEPT
From the bridge it soars
towards you to invite you and
to converse.

View from Puente De La Salve

View from Campo Volantin Footbridge
 ..as you turn
around and enter
it, the building
looks like a calm
and
uninteractiveno
windows, blank
walls... the ones in
front clad with
stones....n some in
titanium at the
back...

CALM AND UNINTERACTIVE

 You look at is a
billboard saying
guggenhiem museum
bilbao n a glass
facade, but that's not
the entrance. There
are total 2 entrances
to the building the
main entrance is
through a staircase
sandwiched between
blank stone clad
walls at the north
western side. That is
the individual
entrance. There is a
separate group
entrance from the
front

ENTRANCE TO THE BUILDING

THE ATRIUM
 You enter a good atrium, i personally like
it as almost every gallery is connected to
it.... visually though. The atrium is the
real heart of the museum and one of the
most idiosyncratic features of Gehrys
design. The atriums remarkable height
(55 m) is one and half times that of
Frank LLoyd Wrights Guggenheim
Museum in NY.

THE ATRIUM
SKYLIGHT OVER THE ATRIUM
It has a sort of metal flower skylight at the top that allows
a stream of light to illuminate the warm, inviting space.

SKYLIGHT OVER THE ATRIUM

OTHER SOURCES OF LIGHT IN THE
ATRIUM
 Exhibition galleries are
organized on three levels
around the central atrium

Atrium surrounded by exhibition

galleries
 Connected by a system of curving walkways suspended
from the roof, glass elevators and stair turrets.

SUSPENDED WALKWAYS CONNECTING

GALLERIES
From the Atrium, the visitor is given the
opportunity to access a terrace covered by a
canopy supported by a single stone pillar.

THE TERRACE
 Exhibition space is distributed in
19 galleries. Ten having regular
shape with stone finish. Nine
other have irregular shape and
have titanium finish. the galleries
are among the best galleries.

Third floor plan

Ground floor plan

GALLERIES
The galleries takes in light from
skylights in the roof. The roof plan looks
like elevation and skylights look like
windows. These diffused skylights are
good for display galleries but on the
other hand it gives blank and un-

LIGHTING IN GALLERIES
interactive exterior walls.
The scale that seems to be lost at
some places in the exterior..
came down in the interiors as
they use partition walls which
also acts as displaysthe
artifacts themselves were used to
create separate spaces.

PARTITIONS IN GALLERIES
there is a rectangular
loft.....beneath the
skylights...that again
is a very good
concept for lighting
but bad as two
galleries get
connected...two
galleries, with diff
displays, on diff floors
get messed up...

RECTANGULAR LOFTS UNDER

SKYLIGHTS
RECTANGULAR LOFTS UNDER
SKYLIGHTS
 PARKIN
G

OFFICES

The back office n loading unloading bays, service entries are best located. They are on the
ground level, a level below the place you enter at...the plan shows parking under the bridge.
Between the columns. From here u can send supply directly to the largest gallery. From the side
entrance u can take everything to the first floor...n other floors... the office n admin is all hidden
which is best part... importance has been given to exhibit spaces.... while they have complete
control on all that is coming in....

The service areas

Views of the service areas
The landscaping is hard
everywhere....just water, which was
already present.
Nothing soft n green.
No shade.....the reason maybe - he
wanted his building to be a sculpture
-some thing hard.
Green would have changed the effect of
museum.

But if this is a reason then why those 3

trees at the rear end?

LANDSCAPE FURNITURE
Water bodies
Water provides reflection and depth to your
view. To admire a building u have to look at
it from a distance. The water provides just
the same facility

WATER BODIES
And that maybe the reason bacause of which Gehry gave seating on the rear
end onlyhe wanted you to go around the buildingwant u to get
aggressive of the hard landscape and then he provides u with a space to sit,
relax and enjoy finallywatching his architecture against Bibaoas a
background and water as a fore ground

WATER BODIES
Water bodies