Imagine walking through the old city of Bilbao, Spain, with ancient cobblestones under your feet, surrounded by buildings adorned with lively colors. The shape of the alley naturally brings your eye up where, at the end, sits a massive modern structure that seems to undulate in the sun. This is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, designed by architect Frank Gehry and widely considered one of the most important and admired works of contemporary architecture.
I find the idea of this modern masterpiece in the heart of an old Spanish city so conceptually cool; I’d love to experience this! Gehry designed the building to have an organic feel, with seemingly random curves. Sitting along the Nervion River, the building looks like a ship about to head out to the Atlantic. At the same time, the titanium panels covering those dramatic curves bring to mind schools of shiny fish cutting through the nearby waters. It’s incredible how one structure expresses different aspects from varying angles.
