{"id":33013,"date":"2014-09-18T18:37:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-18T18:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/martinopietropoli.com\/?p=33013"},"modified":"2019-12-23T09:01:51","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T09:01:51","slug":"mr-gehry-you-cannot-be-serious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinopietropoli.com\/en\/mr-gehry-you-cannot-be-serious","title":{"rendered":"Mr. Gehry, You Cannot Be Serious"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mr. Gehry, You Cannot Be Serious<\/span><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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He\u2019s a funny man and a clever architect. Maybe he\u2019s far too Gehry-ish<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest work by Frank O.Gehry\u200a\u2014\u200athe Biomuseo in Panama\u200a<\/a>\u2014\u200ais about to be completed. Here are some things we might say, looking at this work, about him and his \u201cpoetry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The architect\u2019s bottom line<\/span><\/h3>\n

Being an architect\u200a\u2014\u200aa modest one, but still an architect\u200a\u2014\u200aI know very well that when something you\u2019ve designed doesn\u2019t work very well you have at least three choices:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  • Get rid of it and start again from scratch<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Use colors colors colors!<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Cover it with vegetation, plants, green natural stuff. No one will blame you for the daring building if you plant a tree. Everybody loves trees.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Gehry in true colors<\/span><\/h3>\n

    This time in Panama, Gehry chose option #2: The building was going to look like the usual Gehry, so he decided to use colors. Aluminum? Already used. Titanium? Done. Colors? Sometimes. A lot of colors? Go for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Colors in architecture are able to distract. Nobody knows why, but at a certain point it\u2019s no more about the architecture in itself but about its colors. It\u2019s kind of a subtle way to divert attention from its essence to its appearance. \u201cMmm, I\u2019m not sure I like that red. And that blue? Did you see it? Awful.\u201d And suddenly everybody is talking about colors instead of spaces and functions.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

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    Something really bad happened to the maquette<\/span><\/h3>\n

    Gehry\u2019s buildings often make me wonder if something really bad happened overnight to his maquettes. The evening before he left his studio the maquette was just fine, but the next morning it was a collapsed version of what he left a few hours before.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

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    Panama is no different: it\u2019s like an earthquake hit the building. Sometimes it\u2019s the curved surfaces version, this time it\u2019s just made of collapsed planes. In different colors, please.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Gehry is what the world thinks he is<\/span><\/h3>\n

    The thing is: the world\u200a\u2014\u200aor at least his clients\u200a\u2014\u200awants Gehry to be Gehry. He does strange things. He uses curved surfaces, sculptural objects. A lot of curved things. That\u2019s Gehry. He stopped being a creator when he became a brand of himself. His studio grew bigger and bigger and his clients too and everybody expected him to be just like that: the architect who designed that kind of buildings. One time they\u2019re metallic grey, the other colored. Always gehry-ish, always strange.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    One more thing<\/span><\/h3>\n

    The Panama project is described (I assume by Gehry himself) like that: \u201cThe colourful design is intended to represent the narrow land mass now known as Panama rising out of the sea to unite the drifting continents of north and south America three million years ago.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

    My opinion on these words is: Ok, I don\u2019t see anything like that, but ok.<\/span><\/p>\n

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