Guggenheim Museum - New York

1. Construction time : 1956 - 1959
2. Location : New York, USA

Among the architects are often referred to as "the four giants ", the founding fathers of the Modern Movement in architecture - Le Corbusier (Charles-Éduoard Jeanneret), Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) - it is the last person on the list who is probably the best in using creative geometry in his work . Although in the details of the Imperial Hotel master in Tokyo (1916-1922; destroyed in 1968), his " Maya " geometry in the first houses he built in California as Hollyhock House (1919-21), or the 45-degree hexagonal and hexagonal grid profiles he uses in some of his most famous homes, Wright has proven to be a master at creating patterns and volume modules.

The circular as well as the circular and often spiral-shaped forms of Wright are often preferred, noticeable from his unprepared proposal in 1925 in the Planetarium project on Sugar Loaf.

Frank Lloyd Wright and his model of a museum designed with a glass lid.

The Greek Orthodox Church The transmission in Milwaukee (1959-1961, built after Wright's death) and the CV Morris (1948-1949) shop in San Francisco, proved Wright's ability to transform initially. as mechanical, tasteless, mediocre geometry into dynamic, memorable spaces. Very late in a long career with many important results, he lived from 1867 to 1959, Wright found a sponsor who encouraged him. Solomon R.Guggenheim ordered him to build a museum for most of the non-symbolic art collection gathered under the strict supervision of Countess Hilla Rebay, which later became the first director of the museum. hospital. This was Wright's first order in New York City, the design was announced in 1944, but was delayed by World War II and the founder's death five years later.

Location and solution

The founder and director must definitely solve the unusual problem of the gallery display. While knowledge in charge of museums is conventional, even in the 1950s, it seems to support the sequencing of the gallery galleries, which must be clearly defined, but also foreign Significant rates, especially in the US, such as Louiskahn's Yale Art Gallery in 1954.

Nearly 50 years ago, Wright had expected the huge mass of the Guggenheim as well as several hundred Roman halls illuminated from the top and then built around the world .

The museum is under construction - the reinforced concrete structure is in place.

The design of a building used as an office for a Larkin mail order company in Buffalo (1904, destroyed in 1950). At the venue on Fifth Avenue, between the 88 East and 89 West lines, and looking west of Central Park, he was able to combine this concept with convincing spiral geometry reminiscent of ziggurats. The history of the Near East, despite reversal. This comparison is a reasonable comparison, because Wright himself scrawled the word on one of the museum's cross-sections with a very elegant picture pencil.

The museum is constructed of reinforced concrete, with 12 structural parts protruding connecting the corridor floors. Wright showed great consideration and skill in the low-ceiling entrance and recess areas, stunning the audience as they entered a central volume of branches, soaring high above four floors. upstairs to the sky to cover the dome. However, these floors are not conventional floors, but rather individual spiral slopes, located on steep walls displaying the majority of art collections.

Wright's intentions for the guests to enjoy the paintings will take the elevator to the highest floor, then head down the spiral slope, sometimes stopping to see pictures of exhibitions displayed in rectangular, unattractive galleries. more statues open on each floor .

The museum is located right in downtown New York, directly opposite Central Park.The rear extension proceeded in lies 1992.

There is also the option to go up the slope right from the entrance of the entrance. In both cases, visitors will encounter a completely typical, paradoxical architectural paradox, according to Wright's research that the Guggenheim is not a suitable context for art. If the work of art is displayed by hanging in a horizontal or slope of 10 degrees of the slope? In addition, the inclination tends to display pictures as vertical planes, not relying on frame insertion blocks that are often seen on walls. The importance of each picture is further highlighted by vertical protrusions that form an integral part of the structure, thus tending to fragment the display continuously.

These debates and many other ideas continue - since the Guggenheime Institute's inauguration in October 1959. In 1992, New York architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates largely adapted Wright's concept of volume, creating a much-needed additional corridor and convenient conditions to manage the museum. Recent building facade elevators have raised the amenities of Guggenheime museum museum to international standards and are still a "must visit" place for domestic and foreign visitors. Some critics, including British commentator Bernard Levin, describe the museum intimately as Wright's last practical joke to humankind, but the Guggenheim museum always continues to do us. enjoy as a magnificent architectural space, as a place with a world-class art collection.

Actual data:

1. Slope: 3m wide
2. Height of common corridor: 2.9m
3. Exterior finishing: concrete with cement & crushed marble plaster.

Breathtaking landscape straight ahead towards the sky,
and the spiral slope goes down. (Photo: lib.vt.ed)