62302 New Forms Taschen 079

California architect Frank O. Gehry this trend has been a source of some of his most successful and large-scale projects. The Vitra Design Museum, located in Weil am Rhein, Germany, just across the border from Basel, Switzerland, is a case in point. Here, a large manufacturer of Office furniture decided that calling on "name" archi-teas madę good business sense. For their large holding of museum quality chairs, Vitra asked Frank O. Gehry to create an unusual space, a challenge that he met in a brilliant fashion. Though not very large, the Vitra Museum is fuli of unexpected, soaring spaces, which are far from the accepted norms of modern architecture. Rather, this is a sculptural environment, which succeeds in giving a place of honor to the exhibited furniture while existing in its own right as a work of art.

Gehry's sense of sculptural forms is being carried to new heights in the Bilbao Museum, under construction in Bilbao, Spain. Here, a sophisticated Computer program known as CATIA, used by the French piane manufacturpr Dassault to design the curves of fighter planes, has been harnessed to permit the creation of unusually elaborate shapes. Because of the flexibility of the computer-aided design process, both working models and finał production drawings can be matched to a manufac-turing process that makes it possible to control costs while creating unique forms. Despite his artistic temperament, Gehry's importance lies here in his capacity to make technology do his bidding while solving the practical problems of construction.

Germany and The Netherlands have of course shown the way in Europę with the construction of numerous new museums. Hans Hollein's Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art is a case in point. On a difficult, triangular site in Frankfurt, he created a sort of modern version of the steamship design often seen in early twentieth century architecture. Although it does hearken back to the Post-Modern esthetic of the 1970s, the Frankfurt Museum's complex spaces and imposing presence make it one of the cultural landmarks of Germany.

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