Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain
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I figured that this week would be a “negative” week for The Thinking Insomniac. Not negative in terms of attitude, but negative in terms of my drawings. I will be posting negatives of my drawings this week for your enjoyment. Click here for more negative drawings uploaded on Flickr >>>.
Above is a negative of my sketch of the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The building, designed by Frank Gehry, is recognized for its twisted, curving lines and a series of interconnecting volumes, some of which are limestone-coated orthogonal shapes while others of a more organic volumetry are clad in a metallic titanium skin. These volumes are linked by glass curtain walls for remarkable transparency throughout. En route to the museum is Santiago Calatrava’s Bridge, which inspired my Campo Volantin table.
My journal entry for that day (Friday 27 May 2005) on my Euro-Trip states the following:
Arrived in Bilbao at 8am. Slept well on train last night. Saw Norman Foster’s subway entry. Modernist Art Nouveau at football club façade. Bilbao was a very rich city as all trading was done on this canal (RIPA) also where water is associated w/ rights. Riparian rights. Lower down the canal is Calatrava’s bridge. Reflections of Calatrava’s brigdes in the water are a calculus of time. It is a pedestrian bridge, therefore it carries lighter loads. Guggenheim museum was absolutely wonderful!! Worth every second. Now 12:30pm. I bought a view finder and pen as souvenirs of Guggenheim Bilbao. Rusty metal finish to building on water. Boarded bus to Irun at 5pm. Won’t be in a hotel until Monday. Therefore no showering till then. Left Hendaya (little village across the French border) at 11:10pm. Arrived in Paris at 6:05am.
This was a great day… I learned, saw, and laughed a lot. The Guggenheim Museum is poetry in motion… with interstitial spaces, textures, materials, light, shadows, and experiences that are exciting and unexpected. It is dramatic. This building and many others that I have sketched and mentioned on my blog, continues to inspire me to design and create spaces, and experiences that move me and move others beyond the ordinary. To me it’s more than the product, but also the process. When something deep, poetic, and thoughtful happens, you feel it. Architecture is tangible, you can touch it… but it can, and should also touch you.
More on Guggenheim Museum here >>>
Abstract Architecture for the day:
3.5″ x 5″ Strathmore Sketchbook, ink pens and Sharpies
This work byVernelle Noel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The Thinking Insomniac 
