Sheffield School of Interior Design - Interior Designer Spotlight

Frank Gehry

The concept of architecture as art had never been fully developed until the work of Frank Gehry, the American architect who has pushed, pulled, and stretched the boundaries of architecture, creating a more sculptural masterpiece than just mere structure. His revolutionary approach to design has evoked wonder, disbelief, awe, scorn, admiration – everything but boredom.

Born Ephraim Goldberg in Toronto, Canada, Gehry immigrated to Southern California, changed his name, and found a cultural climate akin to his artistic bent. The relaxed atmosphere as well as the progressive attitudes he found there allowed Gehry to give voice to his deconstructivist vision of architecture. He created buildings using novel materials such as corrugated aluminum, exposed pipes and chain link, and gave birth to the "punk"style of architecture.

Frank Gehry

Gehry's early inspirations were his artist friends, Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg. He claimed that he was more at home with artists than with his fellow architects. These artists were experimenting with ordinary found materials such as broken wood, paper, and fabric to create their works of art. Gehry, in turn, explored using inexpensive raw construction materials such as construction boards and pipes. His design for the Cabrillo Marine Museum incorporates chain links to bind the group of buildings and create "shadow structures"of laced buildings.

Gehry extended this vision towards his design of furniture too. He used corrugated paper to create the "Wiggle"chair. Its seat is supported by layers of undulating corrugated paper.

Gehry first captured public attention with the building of his own home. He and his wife bought an ordinary run-of-the-mill bungalow home in Santa Monica, California. He then proceeded to punch out windows and skylights, expose wood frames, and encase the first floor in a corrugated metal sheath. The resulting assemblage of exposed beams, metal and concrete sparked a frenzy of copycats and the deconstructionist style was born.

Architect Frank Gehry

Despite the whimsical style, the extreme materials, and the radical angles, Gehry never makes random choices for his design. Each material selection, each built wall, roof, and floor is chosen deliberately to create sculptural volumes of light, air, and color. His latest work, the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, produces the effect of a luminous crescent moon descending upon downtown's city streets by using stainless steel for its walls.

Walking around the museum, one sees that the building peels away into ribbons of walls leading into its heart, the round stage for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. The hall's ceilings are draped with Douglas fir and cedar cut in swags, creating a soft canopy effect, similar to an opera house's curtains.

Gehry's previous large project, the Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao, Spain, used titanium cladding to envelop its structure. Located in a previously unheard of run-down Basque city of Bilbao, the museum has revitalized the city and placed it on the map as a popular destination for art and architecture aficionados. The museum radiates out forming a metallic flower. Its position at the top of the central axis of the town of Bilbao acts as a beacon, beckoning natives and tourists alike to travel to this Oz-like wonderland.

Architect Frank Gehry

Another project of his, the DZ (DG) Bank building in Berlin, Germany is even more sculptural. Inside an ordinary mixed-use office building, Gehry renovated the interior by creating a steel clad horse-shaped roof housing conference rooms below. Above the steel roof is a spider-web glass atrium allowing light into all the floors.

In 1996, Gehry designed the Nationale-Nederlanden Building in the Czech Republic. Dubbed the "Fred and Ginger"building by the media, the cylindrical shaped corners of the building appear like the dancing couple. The first cylinder stands straight with a slight tapering volume, crowned with a ball of copper giving the illusion of a top hat. The second cylinder has a pinched waist with the bottom flaring out like a skirt, suggesting the female partner.

Many critics deride the Czech building as a Californian alien element out of synch with the more traditional rectilinear buildings of the city. Alfried Dechau, a German editor, calls it a "crushed can of Coke."Despite the criticism, supporters defend the deconstructed effect of the "crushed" building. The Nederlanden was placed on an empty site that was destroyed in World War II. Any new structure created that would replicate the previous building would in effect wipe out the memory of the destruction of the war. The symbolism of the suppressed violence of Gehry's building instead refers to the tragic events of the war.

Gehry once described his philosophy as "controlled chaos". While the neophyte may look at his structures as a jumble of odd shapes and lines, in truth, Gehry the artist was trying to find the "moment of truth."When faced with line, forms, material, color, and scale, the artist as well as the architect must decide how to express his or her vision and give spirit to raw materials.

Architect Frank Gehry

The architectural community recognized Gehry's achievements and awarded him their highest accolade in architecture in 1989, the Pritzker Prize. In 2000, the American Institute of Architects honored him with their Gold Medal. Frank Gehry continues to redefine his vision with more projects such as the Seattle's Experience Music Project (EMF) and the yet to be constructed latest Guggenheim Museum in New York. Whatever shape his projects turn out, they will always be a source of surprise and excitement.

–Janet Ramin

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