| Vocabulary |
Frank
O. Gehry
American designer
and architect whose sculptural work has made him a world renowned designer |
| organic
- having the characteristic of a real living plant or animal. |
| spiral
- a curve that winds around a center while getting farther from the center. |
| technology
- the branch of knowledge that controls industrial arts and engineering. |
| symmetry-
An arrangement or condition of an object or a figure that has a matching
features in the other half. |
|
The Guggenheim museum designed by Frank O. Gehry and built in Bilbao,
Spain is an "extraordinary combination of interconnecting shapes." In the
same spirit, the original Guggenheim in New York City designed by Frank
Lloyd Wright included circular and curvilinear lines found in nature.
Wright used a spiral inspired by the shell of a snail. When looking
at the Guggenheim by Gehry, you will immediately notice that there are
no real solid shapes. The Guggenheim has no line of symmetry, but
it does revolve around an axis. Built in the center of Bilbao, the museum
is built along side the river, Nervion, which empties into the Atlantic
Ocean. Some people say the the Guggenheim looks as if it were a ship and
in fact, was built with that in mind. The brilliantly reflective panels
are made out of titanium and are referred to as "fish scales" design. Not
only visually dramatic these panels are technologically designed to protect
the art from heat radiation damage. From the air the Guggenheim museum
might look like a smashed, crushed up piece of paper that reflects light,
but it is a mathematically complex and a brilliant example of how technology
lifts up the organic to create a new vision.
http://www.davidhealdphotographs.com/images/gehry03.jpg
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