A DeConstructivist-FRANK GEHRY

ABOUT THE ARCHITECT

• Frank Owen Gehry is a Canadian-born American
architect, residing in Los Angeles.
• He is an alma mater of the University of Southern
California.
• He spent time away from the field of architecture in
numerous other jobs, including service in the United
States Army.In1956, he moved his family to
Cambridge, where he studied city planning at the
Harvard Graduate School of Design.
• His works are cited as being among the most important
works of contemporary architecture ,which led him to
be labelled as "the most important architect of our
age".
 HIS ARCHITECTURAL STYLE
• Gehry sees architecture as an art. He manipulates the constraints of the project, then
expresses his creation. For Gehry, expression is essential in architecture; buildings
cannot be faceless, like in modernism. Thus, he approaches each building as a
sculptural object, each piece of architecture as a painting.
• Gehry's inspirations come from art and his role models are artists. Gehry designs by
pushing the limits of undecidability, like cubist artists. There is no ugly or pretty, no
right or wrong in this process. Gehry's architecture has no real rules; it's open-ended
and experiential architecture, like art.
 HIS WORKS
• Some of Gehry's famous works are cloely associated with the deconstructivist
period.
• His works are said to be structurally exciting and defies categorization.
• Of the many works that he has produced, a few to name are
1. El Peix , fish sculpture located in the Port Olympic
2. Gehry Tower , Hanover, Germany
3. Walt Disney Concert Hall , LA
4. Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle
5. Dancing House , Prague
6. Guggenheim Museum
 MUSEUM OF POP CULTURE
• Located in Seattle, Washington
• Non profit musuem dedicated to
contemporary popular culture.
• used to be known Experience Music
Project and Science Fiction Museum
and Hall of Fame.
• loacted on Seattle Centre. adjacent to
the Space Needle and the Seattle
Centre Monorail.
• Sheet metal construction- building
material is exposed in the buildings
interior.
 DANCING HOUSE

• Located in Prague, Czech Republic

• designed in 1992 and built on a vacant riverfront plot.
• stands out as a non traditional design among the Baroque, Gothic and Art Noveau
buildings.
• the building was first names Fred and Ginger and the house resembles a pair of
dancers.
• The style of the building is deconstructivist due to its unsual shape.
• te shape is supported by 99 concrete panels, each of a differen shape and dimension.
• on top of teh buidling is a large twisted structure of metal called medusa.
• the building has two main parts.
• the first is a glass tower that narrows at half its height and is supported by curved
pillar.
• the second runs parallel to the river and has undulating mouldings and unaligned
windows- which made sure that the building looked like ut has two more floors,
• the winding mouldings on the facade create a 3D imagery and serve to confuse the
perspective and diminsh contrast with the surrounding buildings.