Transformations in Architecture

Frank Gehry introduced a new era in architecture with the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. Noteworthy are the design and building processes which mark a paradigm shift in architectural history and pedagogy. The museum comprises three significant over-arching ideas: Gehry’s unprecedented use of e-technology to design and build, extensive and innovative use of architectural language, and sensitive awareness of cultural memory and history. The design and construction of the Guggenheim effectively mirrored society’s transformation from industrial to post-industrial, and serves as a model of society’s change to an incorporation of e-technology, while representing a historical architectural shift from industrial to technological construction. As a result of the immense transpositions and transformations Gehry created in architecture, a new discourse has been opened among architects and critics alike. Now termed “The Bilbao Effect,” this new dialogue challenges the idea of architecture as an economic tool for urban revitalization. The Guggenheim Bilbao effectively ushers is a new style in architectural history, that of Techno-Morphism.