This Frank Gehry Museum was designed with his signature architectural tendencies in mind. The building was created to mirror Gehry's style, while also holding it's ground as an innovative and fresh concept.
The main two large forms house the exhibition spaces, and can hold approximately 80 people each. They are organic and have a pliable feel to them, each fold and bend intricately designed to keep the interior acoustics as controlled as possible, to avoid the noise that would accompany a big crowd.
Ramps are the main source of circulation throughout the project, which highlights the fluidity of the project, and takes you up around the 15m high space, up to the first floor which holds a small auditorium room, a cafeteria which overlooks the exhibition spaces, and an outdoor balcony which gives you a view of the Beirut port and the Mediterranean Sea.
The main two forms house the exhibition spaces, and the rest of the functions wrap around them. The folds and bends in the structures work to push the acoustics up and towards the other functions, in order to keep the exhibition area as quiet as possible.
The floors above the exhibition centers have a slope which is there to keep the organic language present throughout the project.
Exterior view of the museum.
The museum is located in an area surrounded by tons of activities, and the site is carved out into a park around the museum in order to create a rest stop within the busy area, and add some much needed green spaces to Beirut.
The ground floor consists of a large reception area with two main entrances, and the two main exhibition floors.
Interior view of the entrance.
A ramp in the main exhibition hall takes you up and around the space, to the first floor which holds a cafeteria, an auditorium, and an outdoor area.
Interior view of the first floor.
In order to keep the structure standing, the forms were created with reinforced steel and a delicate structural system that holds up both the exhibition rooms as well as the other floors, and is clad with titanium plates all round to keep an element of Frank Gehry's signature material in the project.
