Industrial

The Tower: Frank Gehry’s Take On Van Gogh

March 31, 2022
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By 
Carisa Magno

Amid the industrial buildings in the Luma Arles art center in southern France is a whimsical building called, The Tower. Frank Gehry is the brain behind this architectural piece. Frank’s works are all over the world, including Germany, Spain, and America among others. In fact, a Pritzker Architecture Prize awardee, he is also the man behind Fondation Louis Vuitton. Known for his eccentric designs, Frank has proven that playful buildings could be elegant if done tastefully.

THE TOWER

Van Gogh’s timeless masterpiece, Starry Night, is the spark that roused the building’s design. He completed the famous painting in Arles, where the Tower is located. Made with 11,000 bizarrely pieced reflective stainless steel panels, the building’s facade mirrors how Van Gogh represented the stars, clouds, and light in his painting. The sublime surrounding reflected through the tower was possible through the stainless steel panels. Quoting Frank Gehry “This manner of breaking down the surface to visible modules became an important theme in the surface development of the building as it reinforced the idea of a ‘painterly building’.” Almost acting like a blank canvas, the building allows the surroundings to be its artisan.

“The design of the tower seeks to capture the movement of discrete elements across a surface,” Gehry explained.

Below, there is a drum-like platform at the bottom of the structure, patterned after the Roman Amphitheater. The tower proudly rises from this cylindrical base made of transparent walls. The 56-meter high building has a vertical stone form connected to the stainless steel facade, this is where the spaces that do not require daylight are specifically located.

Ultimately, Frank Gehry’s tower is also a place for research, production, and art display or art archive. But they are not defined by their labels, these spaces can be modified outside their main function. Much like the designer, there is no limit.

Photo credits: Adrian Deweerd, Herve Hote, Remi Benali

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