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The Bizarre, Chaotic Geometry of a Frank Gehry Building in Progress

17 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

Depending on how you feel about Frank Gehry’s work, this building in progress could either be fascinating, monstrous or a combination of both. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that seeing the bones of such a complex structure is more interesting than the renderings of the finished building, which is another of the architect’s mirrored and faceted standouts. Inspired by the silhouettes of the mountain ranges of its southern France setting, ‘LUMA Arles’ will ultimately tower above an experimental contemporary art center.

Set on a former rail depot turned public park, the building is primarily sponsored by Swiss art collector Maja Hoffmann and is scheduled for completion in 2018. The working title for the tower is ‘Centre for Human Dignity and Ecological Justice,’ and it will host spaces for workshops, art studios, exhibitions, seminars and archives.

“We are creating a place where artists, thinkers, scientists – as well as doers and actors of the economic world – can gather and work together on new scripts for the world,” says Hoffmann of the project.

Photographer Victor Picon captured this series of images showing the intricate arrangements of metal ribs that will ultimately support the reflective cladding. Of course, Gehry’s a bit of a controversial figure in the architecture world, with some hailing his creations as visionary and others finding them garish and structurally unsound, noting that his Strata Center design at MIT has leaked, cracked and developed mold. What’s your stance on Gehry’s work?

[ By SA Rogers in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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New Frank Gehry Building So Ugly it Has to Wear a Paper Bag

09 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

frank gehry building exterior

Featuring over 300,000 custom-designed bricks, the latest work of one of the world’s most famous architects is an impressive feat of engineering, but hard not to compare to a crumpled grocery bag. Even Australia’s governor general Peter Cosgrove introduced it as “the most beautiful squashed brown paper bag I’ve ever seen” at its opening ceremony. Gehry himself reportedly does not mind the comparison, but there is not much he could do or say about it even if he did.

frank gehry bag building

paper bag building gehry

Gehry’s first work in Australia, the structure’s inspiration supposedly came from a combination of local sources (Sydney architecture) and a treehouse, with branching supports holdings organic shapes. Its fenestration is designed to reflect views of the surrounding neighborhood – this, at least, is an intriguing idea that has a demonstrable and interactive effect.

frank gehry glass walls

dancing house image gehry

While Gehry states that this building will not be replicated elsewhere, it is quite recognizable as his work, and thus raises the question: is it sufficiently different from his other amorphous and sculptural buildings to be deemed truly unique in the first place? The resemblance to one half of The Dancing House (aka Fred and Ginger), a nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in Prague (shown above), is hard to miss.

frank gehry classroom space

frank gehry abstract room

The complex and chaotic-seeming shapes percolate into the interior as well, showing via details and spatial configurations in the main atrium space, multiple lecture halls and multimedia rooms and a student center above. Ugly or lovely, a grand metallic entry staircase is also reminiscent of other Gehry projects.

frank gehry reflective forms

frank gehry main staircase

frank gehry paper bag

Ultimately, only time seems to tell whether an unusual building can become an icon, but one has to wonder whether something can become iconic if it is not sufficiently different from other work by the same creator. Perhaps one of his few works to still stand out (and stand the test of time) remains his original Santa Monica house remodel – a reconfiguration that shows a learning process that has arguably since stagnated. There is no doubting his influential roll in contemporary deconstructivist architecture, but he has had failures and rejections as well and his projects increasingly look like muddled remixes of one another.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Public & Institutional. ]

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Architecture Meets Fashion: Shoes by Hadid, Gehry & More

03 Jan

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Architect Shoes Main

How would the architectural styles of Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava translate to shoes? As these 6 collaborations prove, sometimes the results are just as you’d imagine, and sometimes they’re completely unexpected. These architect-designed and inspired shoes range from the practical and wearable to sculptural art objects.

Zaha Hadid for Melissa

Architect Shoes Hadid Melissa

Brazilian brand Melissa offered the ideal medium with which architect Zaha Hadid could indulge her creativity: moulded plastic, which makes it easy to create shapes that can’t really be achieved with more traditional shoemaking materials. Says Hadid, “The design engages with the ?uid organic contours of the body. The shoes asymmetric quality conveys an inherent sense of move-ment to the design, evoking continuous transformation. The concept addresses the perception of wearing the shoe in motion rather than a static display on a shopping window.”

Frank Gehry for J.M. Weston

Architect Shoes Frank Gehry

Would you ever imagine that shoes designed by Frank Gehry would be so… conventional? The architect known for flashy, amorphous metallic structures designed these six-buttoned black-and-white leather boots for the 2009 collection of shoe company J.M. Weston. “You shouldn’t have to differentiate between disciplines, shoes are very architectural and always have been, and even more recently there are new shoes… (that are) buildings.”

Zaha Hadid for Lacoste

Architect Shoes Hadid Lacoste

Zaha Hadid designed a series of limited edition shoes available in quantities of just 1,000. According to Hadid, the shoes were designed “utilizing dynamic fluid grids, which when wrapped around the foot, expand and contract to negotiate the body ergonomically – creating a unique undulating and radiating landscape, ultimately translated to shoes in fine calf leather.”

Julian Hakes for Mojito

Architect Shoes Julian Hakes

Architect Shoes Julian Hakes 2

The Mojito shoe by architect Julian Hakes wraps around the foot in a continuous ribbon, and lacks the footplate that one might say is the most essential part of the shoe. As with most of these creations, however, Hakes’ design is more about form than function.

Rem D. Koolhaas for United Nude

Architect Shoes Rem Koolhaas

The nephew of famed architect Rem Koolhaas, and an architect himself, Rem D. Koolhaas teamed up with British shoemaker Galahad Clark to create a line of architectural shoes for their brand United Nude. United Nude designs has also been inspired by other art forms, like furniture – they have a shoe that honors designers Charles and Ray Eames.

Santiago Calatrava-Inspired Shoes by Tea Petrovic

Architect Shoes Calatrava

The architecture of Santiago Calatrava is captured flawlessly in a series of cutting-edge shoes by Tea Petrovic for a project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo. “I have created a shoe collection, as my graduating project, that is centered around the idea that each shoe is an sculptural-architectural structured form. To underline their sculptural form, the shoes are kept white, which on the other hand emphasis the artistic language, present in the entire collection.”

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Posts Tagged ‘Gehry’

The Bizarre, Chaotic Geometry of a Frank Gehry Building in Progress

New Frank Gehry Building So Ugly it Has to Wear a Paper Bag