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Architect
Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Canadian American architect and designer whose original, sculptural, often audacious work won him world wide renown
Biography
Born in Toronto, Canada in 1929 Bachelor of Architecture from University of Southern California Graduate work in City Planning at Harvard University
He became famous in the 1970s for creating his style of furniture Frank O. Gehry is one of the most sought-after international furniture designers Frank Gehry uses everyday materials such as corrugated iron, plaster and wickerwork to produce his furniture designs
Architectural style
Much of Gehry's work falls within the style of Deconstructivism Santa Monica residence is a commonly cited example of deconstructivist architecture, as it was so drastically divorced from its original context, and, in such a manner, as to subvert its original spatial intention. Gehrys style at times seems unfinished or even crude featured the use of inexpensive found objects and nontraditional media such as clay to make serious art. Gehry has been called the apostle of chain-link fencing and corrugated metal siding he is also a sophisticated classical artist, who knows European art history and contemporary sculpture and painting.
Works Include
Art Gallery of Ontario
Chiat/Day Building Gehry Residence
A Gehry building begins with a sketch, and Gehrys sketches are distinctive. Theyre characterized by a sense of offhand improvisation, of intuitive spontaneity. The fine line is invariably fluid, impulsive. The drawings convey no architectural mass or weight, only loose directions and shifting spatial relationships.
"As soon as I understand the scale of the building and the relationship to the site and the relationship to the client, as it becomes more and more clear to me, I start doing sketches". -GEHRY
In the first sketch I put a bunch of principles down. Then I become self-critical of those images and those principles, and they evoke the next set of responses. And as each piece unfolds, I make the models bigger, and bigger, bringing into focus more elements and more pieces of the puzzle. And once I have the beginning, a toehold into where Im going, then I want to examine the parts in more detail. And those evolve, and at some point I stop, because thats it. I dont come to a conclusion, but I think there is a certain reality of pressures to get the thing done that I accept. Its maturity, or whatever you want to call it, to say stop, go, finish. Ive got other ideas now, and the door is open for the next move, but its not going to happen on this building, its going to happen on the next one.
Completed building
Completed building
Completed building
As time passed Gehrys work became more interesting Benson House designed in 1979 Some other projects designed in the 80s Gehrys fractured geometry, and sculptural buildings have made him Benson House designed in 1979 one of the most sought after, cutting edge Architects of today
Gehry houses
The simple pleasures of clarity were supplanted by the subtler delights of ambiguity Nets of Gehry's trademark chain-link fencing and a tilted skylight over the kitchen add to the ambiguity of the design. All the lines between old and new, horizontal and vertical, roof and wall are blurred into oblivion. Internally, the Gehry house is a deliberately schizoid fusion of the ordinary and the incongruous. It's like a live-in hall of mirrors where the reflections are alternately expected and extraordinary
Gehry begins to reject the Box and his architecture becomes more sculptural
Frank Gehry
When he gets an idea, he sketches it Can you guess what this will look like?
Ta Da!
Dont worry!
He does know how to draw; that was just a gesture thumbnail. This is more like what architectural designs look like
designed with highly polished mirror-like panels The reflective qualities of the surface were amplified by the concave sections of the Founders Room walls . Some residents of the neighboring condominiums suffered glare caused by sunlight that was reflected off these surfaces and concentrated in a manner similar to a parabolic mirror The resulting heat made some rooms of nearby condominiums unbearably warm, caused the airconditioning costs of these residents to skyrocket After complaints from neighboring buildings and residents, the owners asked Gehry Partners to come up with a solution these were dulled by lightly sanding the panels to eliminate unwanted glare
Awards
Gehry was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1974, and he has received many national, regional, and local AIA awards Gehry was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize at the Tdai-ji Buddhist Temple in 1989. to honor a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture. In 1999, he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal "in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture."
Criticism
Gehry's work has its detractors. Some have said: The buildings waste structural resources by creating functionless forms. The buildings are apparently designed without accounting for the local climate. The spectacle of a building often overwhelms its intended use, especially in the case of museums and arenas. The buildings do not seem to belong in their surroundings.
Frank Gehry
Hes so famous that he was even in The Simpson's and Arthur, where he played himself.