Bilbao 3 - Serra and Gehry

The Guggenheim is impressive, a vast multi-limbed ´carp´or otherworldly creature reaching around and through the bridge and city around it. Windows appear as gills, illuminating the massing in interesting ways. Inside it is its own exhibit, the central hall a twisted sculptural space.

Serra, a whole room of them. Repetitive, but excellent. The surfaces of the steel show tremendous variation. Some are scratched, but not in a mechanical way, some seem to have a vestigial paint layer, eaten away by some corrosive process. All the surfaces are quite beautiful. they remind me of the huge Monet paintings of the water surface, you can swim in them.

The spirals and spaces of the pieces, the closing and opening and light variations, are fascinating. I walked through every curve and squiggle. Coming to an open oval, one side seeming to tip back to open to the light after the long enclosed passage was calmly stunning. The relation to Gehry´s work is clear, yet the surface, weight and thinness of the Serra´s work seems more satisfying. (see link)

Serra and Gehry
I think a key issue for architecture today is the thinness and layering of construction. Gehry´s work is very well handled, he understands surface and handles it consistantly. Still sometimes I look for more, for instance, the marble floor is similar to the tile used as a light skin on the open constrcution of the tower. Monolithic construction is nowhere in this work, but one wonders if the ground plane should have a different feel, weight or materiality than the undulating walls. The success of his work is in his recognition of the contemporary ´skin´construction as dominant. He uses these surfaces and the massing and windows to create and expose the monolithic vs skin relationships.

The complimentary and contradictory notions of skin, volume, weight, monolithic volume and interior space is what makes the Serra-Gehry comparison so interesting and Serra´s work so compelling.



The 2nd aspect of Gehry´s work is his recognition that he has created an architectural language and will use it to develope a archtiectural design with urban implications. The movement of the building, the different approaches one can take, its interactions with the bridge and the river are all part of the interest. I can see Gehry imaging the various passages one can take to and through his building - although I wonder if this aspect of his work could be even stronger. I feel the architectural world is so taken with single images of buildings that the experience of movement around and through a building is often lacking.

One aspect I had always been fascinated by when I first saw models of the building, was a large window that pops up to the highway that passes over head. (photo of the window from my bus ride from the airport into the city). I had always loved this gesture, but after walking around and asking several guides I finally figured out that this was just a skylight in the Serra Gallery. I was disappointed. I thought having a gallery with a large window onto the highway to bring people close to the inhuman scale of the city´s infrastructure while people driving by would get a glimpse into this unique space. That would have been a great gesture.