La invención del lugar. Estrategias proyectuales de tres proyectos de Frank Gehry en los Angeles

• Main Author: Iñaki Begiristain Mitxelena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid 2011-10-01
• Series: Cuadernos de Proyectos Arquitectónicos
• Online Access: http://polired.upm.es/index.php/proyectos_arquitectonicos/article/view/1413

<p>One of the characteristics of Modern space is the frequent lack of references that could be considered to build the place. Some of its consequences are the inflation of the value of architectural heritage and thematic architecture. The city of Los Angeles can be considered a paradigm of the latter.<br />Rather than constructing a fiction around a theme, some projects by Frank Gehry employ an alternative strategy aimed at creating a place with contemporary elements. The projects for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, Edgemar and Loyola Law School, built around 30 years ago in Los Angeles County, with varying sizes and programs, used common strategies in order to create a place. The layout of an enclosure, the construction of its limits, the differentiated treatment of materials between outside and inside, its ability to be read at different levels, or the integration of pre-existing buildings, are common instruments that repeat themselves in the three projects analyzed, and the result is public spaces with a scale fitting to the ordinary citizen. <br />One of the clearest references in these projects by Frank Gehry is the work of Alvar Aalto; works such as Seinäjoki that proves the capacity to build new conditions for a place with personal and formal language .</p>