While cleaning my apartment I came across an old New York Times article, “Bilbao Ten Years Later,” by Denny Lee (Travel, Sept. 2, 2007). It was accompanied by a huge photo by Denis Doyle that revealed vertical streaks—presumably from dirt, pollution and rain—marring the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum’s titanium fish-scale surface. It reminded me that 20th and 21st century architectural dream spaces age poorly—and quickly. Traditional building materials—wood, stone, mud, iron, brick—tend to resonate as time passes. Weather and surface damage add patinas and dings that tell a story. Not so with glass, plastics, titanium, aluminum and fiberglass. They just get ugly. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Bauhaus’
The border between dream and reality…
Posted in Architecture, tagged Architecture, Bauhaus, Bilbao, Gehry, utopia on March 27, 2008| 2 Comments »