GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM

Style: Deconstructivism
Description: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a curved, titanium-clad
building with randomly shaped rooms that resemble flower petals and a
large atrium with glass panels that resemble fish scales.
The main entrance to the museum is through a large central atrium, where a
system of curvilinear bridges, glass elevators, and stair towers connects the
exhibition galleries concentric ally on three levels. A sculptural roof form
rises from the central atrium, flooding it with light through lazed openings.
The unprecedented scale of this atrium, which rises to a height of more than
150feet above the river, is an invitation to monumental site-specific
installations and special museum events.
Eleven thousand square meters of exhibition space are distributed over
nineteen galleries. end of these galleries have a classic orthogonal plan and
can be identified from the exterior by their stone finishes. Nine other
irregularly shaped galleries present a remarkable contrast and can be
identified from the outside by their swirling forms and titanium cladding,
The largest gallery, used for temporary exhibitions, measures 30 meters
wide and 130 meters long.
)The Guggenheim Foundation required gallery spaces to exhibit a
permanent collection, a temporary collection, and a collection of selected
living artists. In response, three distinct types of exhibition space were
designed. The permanent collection is housed in two sets of three
consecutive square galleries, stacked on the second and third levels of the
museum. The temporary collection is housed in a more dramatic elongated
rectangular gallery that passes beneath the Puente de la Salve before
terminating in a tower on its far side. The collection of works by living
artists is housed in a series of curvilinear galleries placed throughout the
museum, allowing the work to be viewed in relation to the permanent and
temporary collections.
ASYMMETRY
There is no clear pattern or definition of symmetry on any axis
and the design is freely executed.
FOCAL POINT
All sections of the building seem to converge somewhere in the
center, like a lotus flower. The long gallery rooms in particular
seem to create a radial design.
HIERARCHY
Each room is placed at a different height and none are exact the
same shade or size.
REPETITION
Although the shapes of the rooms are not the same, not of any
real defined geometric shape, they are very similar
conceptually.
CIRCULATION
The central atrium serves as the point of convergence, and the
galleries branch off from it.
MATERIAL
There is a strong contrast in material between the glass atrium
and the titanium walls but both have a reflective quality.
FOCAL POINT
The central atrium (shown on the left in this particular elevation) is the point of
convergence for all of the galleries.
HIERARCHY
The galleries expand on all side.
CONTRAST
There are rectangular buildings on the ground level and then more randomly
shaped rooms as the facade progresses up.
SOLID/VOID
The facade created by windows one some of the galleries and making up the
atrium.
REPETITION
The of rectangles - repeated on the right-side, different sizes
ASYMMETRY
There is no clear pattern of definition of symmetry on any axis and the design is
freely executed.