Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

Photo: Arch. Roberta Falcone

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a contemporary art museum located in a building designed by Canadian architect Frank O. Gehry. It is located in Bilbao in the Basque Country, northern Spain. The Guggenheim Bilbao is one of several museums of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.

It was opened to the public in 1997 and since then it has hosted exhibitions of works of art belonging to the Guggenheim Foundation and also traveling exhibitions. The museum quickly revealed itself as one of the most spectacular buildings of deconstructivism[2]. The Museum occupies a total of 24.000 m², of which 10.600 are exhibition spaces, and is composed of a series of complex volumes, interconnected in a spectacular way. The impact with the surrounding environment is certainly strong, but at the same time not so much as to cause disturbance, indeed the imposing structure blends in with the context thanks to its sober elegance also due to the materials it is covered with.
The museum's design and construction are in keeping with Frank Gehry's style and methods. Like many of his previous works, the main structure is radically sculpted, with almost organic contours. The museum, the designers say, does not have a single flat surface throughout the structure. Part of the building is spanned by an elevated bridge, and the exterior is clad in titanium plates and blocks of limestone from the quarries of Granada...Wikipedia...>>

Photographs courtesy of architect Roberta Falcone