Frank Gehry: Study & Research http://socratesarchitects.com

1. Nicholas Socrates
2008
Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry was born Frank Owen Goldberg in 1992. As a child, Gehry
was a shy dreamer, the victim of local anti-Semitic Bullies. Eventually,
those dreams blossomed into a remarkable career as an internationally
renowned architect.
Gehry, founded his own architectural firm in Los Angeles in 1962, and
since the building of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, he is among the
ranks of international architecture superstars
His buildings are complex constructions, with
curves and distortions, skilful plastic shapes
which never cease to surprise with their
breath-taking spatial effects.
To create these daring designs, Gehry makes
extensive use of the latest electronic tools,
physical models are transformed into digital
models using software and hardware which has
been adapted from the space industry and
medical research.
Gehry has become the most innovative architect in the world.
Before Frank Gehry acquired international prestige of a star architect, he
designed his own house in Santa Monica (1977 - 78). The story starts
when his wife, Berta, bought a small pink bungalow in a bourgeois
neighbourhood. Gehry decided to redesign what he considered "a dumb
little house with charm", to build around it and try "to make it more
important."

2. The design was revolutionary and so delightful.
The sweeping curves Le Corbusier used for the Notre-Dame-du-Haut chapel
influenced Gehry’s later designs.
Le Corbusier, who was also a sculptor, used graceful, sculpted forms in his
architecture.
This freedom of using new shapes and forms, in his architecture and paintings
inspired Frank Gehry to explore his own daring ides regarding design and
materials.
The sweeping curves Le Corbusier used for the Notre – Dame – du –Haut and
Ronchamp chapel influenced and convinced Gehry that not every structure had
to have straight angels or look “mechanistic”.
Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp Chapel

3. Le Corbusier’s Paintings
Le Corbusier’s Architecture

4. Philips Pavilion
‘Poème électronique’, is the first,
electronic-spatial environment to
combine architecture, film, light and
music to a total experience made to
function in time and space. Under the
direction of Le Corbusier, Iannis
Xenaki’s concept and geometry
designed the World’s Fair exhibition
space adhering to mathematical
functions. Edgard Varèse composed the
both concrete and vocal music which
enhanced dynamic, light and image
projections conceived by Le Corbusier.
The Experience Music Project
The Experience Music Project, designed by Frank
O. Gehry & Associates, is an exciting blend of
exhibititions, technology, media, and hands-on
activities that combines the interpretive aspects
of a traditional museum, educational role of a
school, state-of-the-art research facilities of a
specialized library, and audience-drawing
qualities of performance venues and popular
attractions.
Located on 5th
Avenue adjacent
to the Space
Needle at Seattle Center, the 140,000-
square-foot facility celebrates the
creativity and innovation of American
popular music and culture.
The EMP presents opportunities to explore
its history and traditions, participate in the
music making process, experience great
music, and learn the secrets of composition and performance.

5. It places a special emphasis on music-
related traditions in the Pacific
Northwest, and specifically
commemorates Jimi Hendrix, one of
America's a most creative, innovative,
and influential musical artists.
The building itself consists of a cluster of
colourful curving elements clad in a
variety of materials. The fragmented and
undulating forms are inspired in part by the image of Jimi Hendrix’s
shattered Fender Stratocaster.
The Ed. House functions as an educational public
outreach program, offering opportunities to learn
more about the themes explored in the exhibit
areas, experience and participate in a variety of
musical activities, and further explore and develop
creative abilities and music-related skills.
The Sky Church, a concept inspired by Jimi Hendrix,
represents the coming together of all types of people
united by the power and joy of music and music
making, and is physically embodied in the building's
central public gathering area. Through a series of
exhibition spaces;
presenting the collision of
multiple viewpoints and
traditions, of American
popular music.
The Sound Lab offers
hands-on opportunities to
create and illustrate some
of the relationships
between music, science,
and technology. The
Artist's Journey is a
compelling history of the life and times of artists, illuminating the human
aspect of their artistry and revealing the unexpected events and formative
experiences that contributed to their creative development.

6. The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, by Frank Gehry;

7. The Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao:
is a modern and contemporary art
museum designed by Frank Gehry,
built by Ferrovial and located in
Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is
built alongside the Nervion River,
which runs through the city of
Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The
Guggenheim is one of several
museums belonging to the
Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation.
The museum features both
permanent and visiting exhibits
featuring works of both Spanish
and international artists.
The curves on the building have been
designed to appear random. Gehry says
that "the randomness of the curves are
designed to catch the light".
Opened to the public in 1997, it was
immediately vaulted to prominence as
one of the world's most spectacular
buildings in the style of
Deconstructivism. Architect Philip
Johnson called it "the greatest building of
our time".
The museum's design and construction
serve as an object lesson in Gehry's style
and method. Like much of Gehry's other
works, the structure consists of radically
sculpted, organic contours. Sited as it is
in a port town, it is intended to resemble
a ship. Its brilliantly reflective titanium panels resemble fish scales,
echoing the other organic life (and, in particular, fish-like) forms that
recur commonly in Gehry's designs, as well as the river Nervión upon
which the museum sits.

8. Also in typical Gehry fashion, the building is uniquely a product of the
period's technology. Computer Aided Three Dimensional Interactive
Application (CATIA) and visualizations were used heavily in the structure's
design.
Computer simulations of the building's structure made it feasible to build
shapes that architects of earlier eras would have found nearly impossible
to construct. It is also important to note that while the museum is a
spectacular monument from the river, at street level it is quite modest
and does not overwhelm its traditional surroundings. 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" and subsequently
inspired other structures of similar design across the globe, such as the
Cerritos Millennium Library in Cerritos, California.
The building was constructed on time and budget, which is rare for
architecture of this type. In an interview in Harvard Design Magazine.