The Significance of Frank O. Gehry’s Museums in Contemporary Museum Design Methodology

Abstract

Modern museums were born because of the spatial composition program, exhibition techniques, and the diversification of architectural styles. Frank Gehry is an architect pursuing extreme forms and thinks modern box-shaped architecture is bland and lacks feeling/passion/love. This paper aims to examine the characteristics and meaning of the museums designed by Gehry, Gehry's unique architectural view, and the elements of his museum designs. As a methodology, the classification of modern museums in Newhouse's "Towards a New Museum “and trends in modern museum architecture are classified into six categories in Montaner's book "Museums for the 21st Century," which are used as a framework for comparative analysis to point out the characteristics of the Gary Museum and derive the location and meaning in modern museum architecture. The result shows that his architectural tendencies of fragmentation and duality are applied to the Gary Museum, revealing complex characteristics in terms of composition by contrasting combinations of formality and irregularity in materials and forms. The intricate design of the Gary Museum reveals its strong presence by creating a sculptural museum that encourages a four-dimensional experience both inside and outside. It was statistically proven that the above characteristics of the Gary Museum represent an aspect of the modern museum that is becoming a popular entertainment medium. A relaxed and comfortable exhibition environment was promoted by weakening the excessive rigidity in the exhibition space through the changeable ceiling treatment. Gary's museums were born between radical experimentalism and a pragmatic professional temperament.