Table of contents:
- Walt Disney Concert Hall, America
- University School of Business Sydney, Australia
- Brain Health Center in Las Vegas, America
- Solomon Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain
Video: Crazy and "human" buildings of the genius Frank Gehry, which amazed the whole world
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
His buildings are known all over the world and leave no one indifferent: the Dancing House in Prague, the Brain Health Center in Las Vegas and many other projects of this architect, on the one hand, have won world awards, and on the other, they look like a figment of a sick imagination. They look really crazy. And at the same time, they fascinate. It is clear that only a very extraordinary person could come up with such a thing. After all, it is not for nothing that Frank Gehry is recognized all over the world as the largest architect of our time.
Frank Gehry (real name - Ephraim Goldberg) was born in 1929 in the city of Toronto. He comes from a Jewish family of major merchants, and changed his name and surname after being beaten for his nationality in his youth. Who knows, perhaps this psychological trauma also influenced his creative direction, which, as he himself said more than once, is based on inner freedom and humanity.
- My projects are so expressive, that's why I want to give them a human character. Who cares about glass boxes? They can only bring cold and they are completely unfriendly to us, people, - says the winner of the Pritzker Prize, Frank Gehry.
From the age of 17, he led an independent life: first he studied in California, then at Harvard, worked in foreign architectural firms, and then founded his own. It changed its name several times and is now called Gehry Partners.
In the creative piggy bank of Gehry there are many famous works, and not only buildings. He has, for example, an author's collection of chairs from a well-known Swiss furniture company. It is made of corrugated cardboard. Moreover, each chair costs a hundred times more than it cost the manufacturers to manufacture. Gehry is also the author of the famous sculpture of a goldfish, installed in the port of Barcelona and later became the symbol of the city.
And Frank Gary, being an avid hockey fan, in 2004 came up with a sketch for the cup, which is awarded to the world ice hockey champion team.
Frank Gehry is so popular and at the same time controversial that in 2005 fans of the Simpsons series even saw him as a character in one of the series. Moreover, Gehry himself voiced him, which only emphasizes the irony of his nature. In the cartoon, the architect built a shocking building in the form of a crumpled piece of paper - an exact copy of the one that was lying on the sidewalk.
Gehry's statements were always loud and defiant. For example, he states: “98% of everything that is designed and built in the world is absolute crap. These are buildings in which there is neither a sense of design nor respect for a person. These are ordinary banal concrete boxes."
And at the same time, he admits that he is still not sure of himself and is very worried about the opening of each new building. “Every time I want to hide under the covers and am terrified of what people might think. That is, every time I am not completely sure that I have done something worthwhile. It is a feeling of healthy self-doubt,”says the great architect.
Well, the buildings of the architect Gehry cannot leave anyone indifferent, as well as his statements.
Walt Disney Concert Hall, America
This original Los Angeles concert venue, which is also the home stage of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, was designed and built with money from Walt Disney's widow. Mrs. Lillian donated $ 50 million for the project.
The hall has excellent acoustics, but about the building itself, controversy is still ongoing: is this a brilliant project or tasteless shocking?
University School of Business Sydney, Australia
While working on the campus renovation of the Sydney University of Technology Business School, Gehry already had a solid background in the design of university buildings. The idea to make "crumpled" facades is associated with an unusual interior layout. Gehry himself explained that he designed the building on the principle of a tree. Inside there are auditoriums - "branches" that connect public spaces - "trunk". He compares the branches of a tree with thoughts growing in the head of a person.
The complex shape of the building is emphasized by the lighting that changes during the day. And the glass windows of the façade reflect the equally complex and diverse Australian city.
Brain Health Center in Las Vegas, America
The Lou Ruvo Brain Health Center opened in 2009. Its employees are engaged in research in the treatment of Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Huntington's diseases, as well as their early detection.
The building was funded by a charity founded by Larry Ruvo in honor of his father, who died of Alzheimer's.
The customers specifically asked Frank Gehry to design such a building that would cause a huge resonance in society and draw the attention of others to the problem of patients with these almost untreatable diseases, and at the same time would attract investors.
By the way, the architect agreed to participate in the project after he got acquainted with the tragedy of the Larry Ruvo family. This topic is also close to him - his friend's wife and three sister-in-law died from Huntington's disease.
Solomon Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain
The strange, titanium-clad building, erected in the late 1990s in Bilbao and subsequently gaining worldwide fame, initially provoked protest from residents. As the architect recalled, during the construction, the townspeople took to the streets with placards. The architect believes that this happened because people who were accustomed to monotony simply did not understand his progressive architecture. However, they later appreciated her.
“Now that the museum has been built, everyone is just begging me to take a picture with them against the backdrop of the building. And in order to satisfy the request of everyone, I, perhaps, should have stayed to live in this town, - the architect notes with pride.
Another Gehry masterpiece - Dancing House in Prague.
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