Birthday boy of the day. Frank Gehry is 90!

/ Architecture /

A non-conformist, an ardent radical and just an eccentric genius, which ignores traditional notions of architecture—today у mainOn deconstructivistа our time of jubilee. Its "crumpled" architecture, which has settled in many corners of the world, known to many, we have collected for you five cult items of Gary the designer.

The "Dancing House" in Prague, the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris museum, the educational building of Dr. Chau Chak Wing at the University of Technology Sydney - If you want to understand what deconstructivism is in architecture, the work of Frank Gehry is the best example. Even the Pritzker laureate's own house in Santa Monica (1978) was built in a manner characteristic of the meter.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, 1997

Architectural deconstruction involves, first of all, rethinking, "reconstruction" of archetypes, departure from established methods and rules, liberation from the "pressing" of previous architects. As a result, its characteristic features are fragmentary abstraction of forms, layering and fragmentation of created visual images, sculpture, a certain metaphoricality and allegory along with the complex relations of these objects with the historical and natural context.

All the above mentioned attributes can be found in the projects of Frank Gehry and his colleagues in the shop, who work in the same direction: Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Stephen Hall and the favorite student of the meter — Zaha Hadid.

Frank Gehry with his most famous student

"During my fourth year at USC, a practicum teacher came up to me in the yard one day and said, 'Frank, I've been watching you and I think you're a talented kid who could go any route.' I just want to give one piece of advice: it doesn't matter how small the project you're working on, and it doesn't matter what it is: put your heart, soul and sense of responsibility into it and don't lose anything." He said it very clearly and with love, and I never forgot it, and I lived it."

The meter is still true to this principle. He is primarily known for his unique architectural projects, but we will get to know Gary as a designer.

 

Shoes in Gerov style

In 2009, Frank designed shoes for the autumn-winter collection of the famous French shoe brand JMWeston. "Shoes are a very architectural thing in themselves," he used to say. However, in this model, you are unlikely to find Gerev's deconstructivist handwriting: it turned out to be quite traditional, made in a classic black and white color scheme.

Black and white shoes designed by Frank Gehry for JMWeston, 2009.

Inspired by the facade of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Dutch designer Marlusten Behmer invented the Red mâché shoe from strips of treated leather, one of which plays the role of heel. The provocative Couture Shoes collection, which includes models made of leather, polyurethane and even paper, travels to museums around the world - whether anyone wears it remains a question.

Red mâché shoe, Couture Shoes series, designed by Marlusten Bemer

We sit on cardboard

In the early 70s, having once seen a pile of industrial packaging near his office, from which, by the way, the meter often made architectural models of his buildings, Frank decided to use this material to make furniture. This is how the whole collection of Easy Edges cardboard items was born, and the most important example of it is the Wiggle sine chair.

Clad in plywood, it is made of 60 (!) layers of corrugated cardboard, held together by internal bolts. Light at first glance, the design turned out to be strong and reliable: it can withstand the weight of not only an adult, but also a small car.

A cardboard Wiggle chair in designer Julia Hillman's East Hampton home. Photo: Manolo Yllera

Gary is for dummies

Gary invented the Pito kettle for the Italian brand Alessi. Its body is made of stainless steel polished to a mirror shine and is shaped like the crest of a wave, while the whistle and mahogany handle are like two fish jumping out of the water. By the way, the melody of the whistle is a whale song. Having broken traditional ties here as well, Gary invented a sculptural and at the same time poetic object. It costs €389,00 now.

Pito Whistling Kettle, designed by Frank Gehry for Alessi

About hockey

Frank is a big hockey fan (no wonder he is from Canada). In 2004, he invented the design of the main cup, which is now awarded to the team that wins the World Ice Hockey Championship. It is a copper-nickel composite body housed in a clear acrylic shell. Gary's creation caused mixed reactions, especially from the sports community: he claimed that it was a redesign of the previous cup (indeed, there is a similarity), while spectators compared it to a vase or a beer keg, and the press asked: "What is this?".

Frank Gehry

Meter with the cup he created for the World Hockey Championship

"Super light"

Frank Gehry's architectural office once ordered 125 Hudson office chairs designed by Philippe Starck from the Emeco factory. When asked by company director Gregg Buchbinder why he chose them, Gary replied: "Hot glue guns and precision knives!" It turned out that his people had managed to render the chairs in the bureau's office unusable, and Frank needed a chair that could withstand anything. They then talked about creating a new chair, and Gary came up with a design that included a frame and a "skin" that sat on top of it and moved when the user sat on the chair.

The Superlight aluminum chair that Gary designed for Emeco

“I wanted to combine three things in this chair: comfort, light weight and strength. Aluminum was the obvious choice and Emeco is the only company that can do it. Joe Ponti's Superleggera chair was an inspiration and I always wanted to design a super light chair. I tried to extract the essence - the structure and the "skin", where engineering and design are one. "Superlight is a chair whose seat moves in such a way as to create comfort for a person of any body type: the person sitting activates it," says the author.

Frank is currently completing the Luma Arles tower in Arles, France.

A fresh photo of Frank Gehry's facility under construction in Arles has appeared

It is also worth mentioning the documentary film "Essays of Frank Gehry" in 2005, filmed not by anyone, but by a friend of the architect - film director, actor and producer Sidney Pollack.