Wednesday 17 September 2008

Guggenheims


I've always loved the Guggenheim museums, especially the spiral in New York and the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain. They look like they've been designed from the future, they don't belong in the landscape at all but there definitely a breath of fresh air. These two museums are pushing the boundaries of what is possible both in construction and concept.


The Guggenheim Bilbao (above) has been described as the greatest building of our time and I would agree. The free flowing organic contours of the building are textbook Frank Gehry design. As Bilbao is a Port town the whole construction was meant to resemble a ship, the side of the building is coated in reflective titanium resembling fish scales. Computer simulations made the construction of this design feasible although architects of an earlier era would have found this impossible.

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