On the 10th anniversary of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao, Nancy Alsop considers how a decade of inspirational architecture is reshaping the landscape of Spain’s premier cities
Type “Guggenheim” and “Bilbao” into Google and you’ll find a myriad of odes to Frank Gehry’s curvaceous, free-form Expressionist masterpiece. Heaped on the praise for the structure itself are plaudits for the way in which this new home for modern art changed the face and the very fabric of the city.
Bilbao was reborn, its renaissance transforming it from drab to world class.
Deservedly crowned one of the world’s elite ‘starchitects’, Gehry had pulled a titanium-clad, flower-shaped rabbit out of the hat. But to say simply that the Guggenheim transformed its hometown would be to underestimate its far-reaching effects.
Ten years on from its unveiling, Spain is quite a different place. In architectural terms, it had been known primarily for Gaudi’s output which, though brilliant, nonetheless made for rather static surroundings as regards innovative building policy. When Gaudi died in 1926, half of Barcelona dressed in black, and it would seem that up until October 1997, both the city and the country were still shrouded in a mourning veil. Until, that is, Gehry took advantage of the wave of optimism generated by the Barcelona Olympics and reawakened a country to the possibilities of architectural experiment, advance and enquiry. In short, he restored the spirit of ‘God’s Architect’.
In response, we have a country that is excited about realising the oft talked about, but little-achieved, revolution in architecture. Take, for instance, Valencia. As a consequence of collaboration between its forward-looking mayor, Rita Barbará Nolla, and Valencian engineer and architect Santiago Calatrava, the municipality that once played second fiddle to Barcelona and Madrid has grasped its possibilities and is now a rival tourist destination.
Opened in 2005, Calatrava’s City of Arts and Science covers 32,500m² and is a large-scale recreation centre devoted to scientific discovery and cultural enquiry. In the dried out river bed of the Turia, unremitting white concrete stylistically marries all 10 buildings in the complex, which includes a planetarium (L’Hemisferic) that looks like a floating eye (which blinks) and an opera house that played host to Placido Domingo in its first season. The linear park is inspired by animalistic forms and surrounded by water in response to the arid environs.
Visitors can wander around the ‘city’ – incidentally, not an overblown term for the sprawling, microcosmic multiplex – without reaching for their wallets. This is, according to Calatrava, one of its chief triumphs, as it was designed to encourage leisurely discovery through promenading. With this unprecedented contribution to architectural reinvention, its architect did more than just deliver museums from their hallowed, fusty image – exhibitions at the Principe Felipe Science Museum are tactile, in defiance of traditional “don’t touch” signs – but concurrently raising Valencia’s status to tourist destination.
In the process Calatrava himself has become a valuable Spanish export. There is the Chicago spire, a 610m corkscrew of a building set to be the tallest skyscraper in America, still to come. He’s also contributing to the World Trade Centre site in New York.
Museums are big business in Spain. While Calatrava’s may be the largest, his compatriot, Pritzker Prize-winning Rafael Moneo, delivered the country’s most famous gallery of the 21st century earlier this year. The €143m Prado extension, five years in the making, is a work of understated brilliance. Eschewing the lure of producing an eye-catching addition to the original 1819 Juan de Villanueva building, Moneo’s submission is an elegant, streamlined structure in red brick.
Presenting the antithesis to the pretty-face school of design (those that present showy exteriors only to neglect the interior), it is inside that the magic happens. Once past the municipal quality of its external appearance, the modernist annex is a series of cubic rooms, cleverly and naturally lit, while the cavernous foyer sits comfortably but in gratifying contrast to the Baroque style of the original building. The addition of the extra 17,000m², situated next to Los Jeronimos church, provides space for a temporary exhibition of over 1,000 Goya prints which have, until now, been gathering dust in storage. The extension’s unfussy gravitas speaks of craftsmanship and solidity while the art itself has a new, confidently modest platform.
Neither has Madrid overlooked its other principal gallery, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, whose Jean Nouvel-designed addition was completed in 2005. Home of Picasso’s Guernica, it also houses other works by Dalí and Miro among other masters.
The Nouvel expansion transformed the gallery into one of the largest modern art institutions in the world. The unusual triangular site is adjacent to the original building, which was constructed as a hospital in the 18th century before being transformed into a gallery in 1977. A central atrium is encircled by three separate buildings that accommodate gallery space, an auditorium and a restaurant. But perhaps its most stunning and innovative aspect is the reflective covering that floats above them, bringing the independent structures under the same roof and providing an area open to the public from which to enjoy vistas over the city.
Meanwhile, Valencia hasn’t been resting on its Calatravan laurels. The Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, noting the reinvigorating potential to be drawn from a stylish appendage, is in line for its own extension. In stark contrast to Moneo’s 1930s-reminiscent structure, Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryne Nishizawa have designed an additional auditorium, restaurant and offices that will be bathed in an unrelenting white glow. Plans reveal a cleverly constructed pallid shell that will fit over the existing building, its perforated metal skin allowing it to be at once exterior and interior. It will allow not only the daylight in, but also wind, rain and any other elemental eventuality.
While pioneering institutional design is a tried and tested formula for attracting the cultured cognoscenti, it remains to be seen whether UK-based architect Zaha Hadid will manage to achieve the same draw with the less sexy subject matter of EuskoTren’s headquarters in the small, industrial town of Durango, just east of Bilbao. More certain, however, is that the plans will transform the town’s infrastructure, eradicating the present train track divide by building a rail tunnel under it. Due for completion in 2009, the above-ground structure will comprise commercial buildings and office space.
The real significance is that, where other countries turn a blind eye to industrial towns that are useful but not beautiful, Spain is at last trouble-shooting its urban predicaments – and with some imagination. Hadid, another of that breed of flamboyant starchitects, was awarded the Spanish commission before she was ever given work in her own, apparently less adventurous, homeland. From the author of surely the most beautiful car factory ever seen (BMW’s in Leipzig, Germany), we can undoubtedly expect great things.
With this on the cards and countless other projects on the go, here’s to the next 10, post-Guggenheim years.
FR » Le nouveau visage de l’Espagne
A l’heure de la célébration de son dixième anniversaire, le Guggenheim construit par Frank Gehry à Bilbao a changé le visage et le tissu de la ville. Il a réveillé un pays entier, lui faisant prendre pleinement conscience des possibilités de l’architecture, des avancées qu’elle représente.
Prenez Valencia – la mairesse Rita Barbara et l’architecte Santiago Calatrava ont suivi la voie de Gehry en redonnant une dynamique à la ville. La Cité des Arts et des Sciences à Valencia est dédiée à la découverte scientifique et à l’approche culturelle. Le complexe composé de 10 bâtiments est conçu pour encourager le plaisir de la découverte, rompant avec l’image poussiéreuse des musées.
Rafael Moneo, qui a remporté le Prix Pritzker, a donné au pays la plus prestigieuse galerie du 21e siècle, plus tôt cette année. L’extension du Prado à Madrid, pour un montant de £100m, défie par sa brillance subtile. Au-delà de sa qualité de bâtiment municipal dans son apparence extérieure, c’est à l’intérieur que la magie opère. Cet aménagement à l’austérité non ostentatoire, parle de travail de la matière et de solidité, tandis que l’art lui-même dispose d’une nouvelle plateforme, digne et rassurante.
Mais Madrid ne relègue pas pour autant au second plan son autre grand musée principal, le Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, dont Jean Nouvel a dessiné l’extension inaugurée en 2005. Son côté le plus étonnant et innovant est sans doute le deltaplane troué qui flotte au-dessus de l’atrium central, une aire ouverte au public à partir de laquelle on bénéficie d’une superbe vue sur la ville.
De retour à Valencia, l’Institut Valencia d’Art Modern s’aligne sur ces bâtiments qui ont opté pour des extensions. Les architectes japonais Kazuyo Seijima et Nishizawa ont ajouté un auditorium, un restaurant et des bureaux qui seront baignés dans la blancheur, ouverts à la lumière, au vent et même à la pluie.
L’Espagne secoue réellement son environnement urbain, avec une large touche d’imagination.
NL » Het nieuwe gezicht van Spanje
Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao bezorgde de stad een volkomen nieuw aanzicht. En het viert nu zijn tiende verjaardag! Het museum maakte zijn land opnieuw bewust van de vele mogelijkheden op het vlak van architecturale experimenten, nieuwe ontwikkelingen en vraagstellingen.
Neem nu Valencia. Burgemeester Rita Barbara en architect Santiago Calatrava volgden het voorbeeld van Gehry door hun stad nieuw leven in te blazen. Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences is gewijd aan wetenschappelijke en culturele vernieuwing. De 10 gebouwen van het complex zijn zo ontworpen dat ze een ontdekkingstocht stimuleren in een ontspannen sfeer en museums van hun stoffige imago bevrijden.
De winnaar van de Pritzker Prize,Rafael Moneo, bezorgde het land eerder dit jaar zijn bekendste galerie van de 21ste eeuw. De uitbouw van Madrids Prado ter waarde van zo’n 150 miljoen euro is een staaltje van onvervalste genialiteit. Eens voorbij het stedelijke karakter van de buitenmuren wordt de magie aan de bezoeker geopenbaard. Uit de ongecompliceerde plechtstatigheid van de uitbouw straalt vakmanschap en robuustheid, terwijl de kunst zelf een nieuw, overtuigend bescheiden platform kreeg.
Madrid zag ook haar andere grote galerie, de Museo Nacional Centro de Arte, niet over het hoofd. De uitbouw daarvan van de hand van Jean Nouvel werd voltooid in 2005. Het meest verbluffende en vernieuwende aspect hier is misschien wel de weerspiegelende bedekking die boven het centrale atrium ”zweeft”, waardooreen publieke ruimte werd gecreëerd met een prachtig uitzicht over de stad.
Ondertussen, terug in Valencia, is het Institut Valencia d’Art Modern klaar voor zijn eigen uitbreiding. De Japanse architecten Kazuyo Seijima en Nishizawa tekenden een extra auditorium, restaurant en kantoren die zullen baden in wit, en die licht, wind en zelfs regen zullen binnenlaten.
Spanje pakt eindelijk de problemen in zijn steden aan en niet zonder verbeelding!
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