In order to be accepted by the design committee Gehry had to incorporate existing elements of the city into the museum such that the new Guggenheim would at once reflect and increase the splendor of the city’s busiest public space. Gehry drew inspiration from many of his old designs borrowing and improving on all of the innovations he had made over the years including wild curving lines rather than simple 90 degree angles and the concept of a village of shapes, in which one single building was deconstructed into many small pieces and then linked together with a unifying element. In the case of Guggenheim Bilbao the link consisted of a 165ft tall glass atrium and an all around titanium skin that covered the museum. The titanium skin, only 1/3 of a mm thick adds to the feeling that the building is in constant motion as it has enough play that it moves in the wind.
designing / process
To develop the Museum forms, Gehry started with paper and wooden models in different scales, which he gradually adapted and refined. Every point of the model’s curved surface was digitally processed by the program, which develped and coordinated the construction while feeding information into a machine that sculpted an exact model of the building, thus affording the architect an interpretation of his design.
The Bilbao Guggenheim had to be completed in five years, although IDOM’s experience suggested that at least seven were needed. At the suggestion of Frank Gehry’s office to use a fast track system, IDOM’s initial rough schedule dedicated 1993 to developing the project to a point where construction could begin, 1994 to erecting the structural systems, 1995 to building the facades and 1996 to completing the interiors. To meet such aggressive deadlines, design development and construction phases had to be significantly overlapped. If the phases were not overlapped, the design would need to be far less complicated or the project schedule would need to be extended.
By taking into account this overlap, IDOM developed a schedule including a calendar of design freeze dates designated by project area. Once each area was “frozen,” design decisions could not be modified if they increased the Target Cost or timeline.