2010 Oct 21 Architect Frank Gehry in Beijing to open exhibition
Award-winning architect Frank Gehry was in town over the weekend for the official opening of “Frank Gehry. Architect”, a Sanlitun Village North exhibition surveying the highlights of his 40-year-plus career. The exhibition features photos and sketches of some of Gehry’s key projects, as well as exhibits illustrating various aspects of the architect’s technique, including his pioneering use of computers. A whole corner, complete with a scale model, is devoted to Gehry’s most celebrated project, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.
The exhibition seems partly intended to promote the collaboration between Gehry Partners, Mr. Gehry’s firm, and Swire Properties, the Hong Kong-based company behind Sanlitun Village. The residential project, at 53 Stubbs Road in Hong Kong, is scheduled for a 2012 launch. For more on that, click here.
At a Sunday morning press conference held to launch the exhibition, Gehry said it was “a great honor to have somebody create a show of my work and display the way I work.” He went on to add that he was “honored to work for Swire Properties for my first significant building in Asia” and, with a smile, said he’d like to do more work in Asia. Something in Beijing, perhaps?
Gehry looked back on his career, reflecting on his “Asia-centric” early studies under the guidance of a teacher who’d returned from the Second World War to lead his students, Gehry among them, to explore Japanese temple architecture.
On the development of architecture and his role in that, Gehry commented: “It’s interesting the way architecture has grown. I’ve tried to empower the architect to be more creative, to make better buildings. The construction industry creates about 30 percent of waste produced worldwide. If one can get rid of that waste and use the money to create more humanistic buildings. Not only has Swire been a good client for me, they’ve participated in this experiment.”
Asked by one journalist how “innovation” comes through when working with a client –specifically Swire and the Hong Kong project – Gehry had this to say: “Architecture is a service to a client. We explore many opportunities to interact with the client on their business needs, their sense of the market. The innovation comes from my own explorations and curiosities, but in response to the client’s program and budget.”
With the Q&A session limited to only around five or six questions, the opportunity to seek the master architect’s views on Beijing’s architectural feats in all their glory – from the heights of the CCTV Tower and Bird's Nest to the Tetris-style nightmare of Wanda Plaza – sadly didn’t materialize. Ah well.
“Frank Gehry. Architect” is open in Bldg 8, Sanlitun Village North, from now until Nov 30. There’s advertising all around Sanlitun Village to guide you there. Free entry. Daily 11am-9pm.
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