PARIS

First sightings of Frank Gehry’s Louis Vuitton Foundation, his dream vessel for the cultural heritage of France: a hulking stern of vast glass sails, a new-age Time Bandit Galleon. While monumental and majestic, it also looks soft – almost like the sky-grey opaque, sky-reflecting, panels could ripple in the breeze. Their size is only accentuated by the newly planted rows of trees near the main entrance, creating a bizarre Bonsai effect in tandem with the surrounding park.

Once inside, the architectural approach is more formal, with a vast, boxy lobby area and a glass-panelled bookshop. It’s like entering a vast white container before navigating, either by ascending or descending, the other decks. From here on Gehry’s expression of a dream vessel gathers pace, producing not just one dream, but a series of dreams within dreams, as each level presents unexpected moments – sometimes hangar-like gallery spaces, sometimes smaller, darker intimate spaces. Moving upwards, not only do you get close up views of the complex, skeletal structures supporting the building’s curved sails, but also brief glimpses of the Bois and irregular-shaped snapshots of Paris, including at one moment, a rather apologetic, size-O, Eiffel Tower, rising in the distance – another dream from a more rigid age of architecture.

Continuing up the rough-hewn sandstone staircases, that seem strangely soft to the foot, or taking the requisite intergalactic escalators, the eye is constantly challenged by the edgy contrast of materials. Rock meets satinized sheets of white metal, elaborate twisted girders, like tangled ribs, gracefully turn and transcend into giant arcs of golden oak, while metallic escalators undulate like the graceful, gentle waterfall downstairs.

With each twist and turn  – and there are many in the structure – I felt like I was a modern-day Jonah, exploring the insides of a technological whale. Even outside, the upstairs terraces, with planted areas and magnificent views, continue the mystery as new ways to climb up towards the crows nest present themselves with each twist and bend.

After the busy-ness of the architectural structures upstairs, and certainly under the shade of night, the submerged basement areas, with their hypnotic pools of water, provide another element of contrast with what towers above. And yet all is not as it seems. An installation of mirrors by Olafur Eliasson create dizzying vistas of refracted black silhouettes on acid yellow, a beguiling catwalk, its zigzag trajectory mirrored in the still waters of the lake beneath.  It’s like a duotone fashion shoot from an Orson Welles movie: Figures appear… only to disintegrate. Now near … now far. All in a dazzling glow of sulphourous yellow.

I might be mistaken, but at one point the reflections of the diagonal pillars started to dance in front of me, and for a moment, I’m sure I caught sight of an L overlapping a V in the waters below. Maybe it was just another dream within a dream?

 Text and photos: Mathew Birch

LONDON

There is always an element of surprise inside the temporary, deluxe showroom at Frieze Masters in Regents Park. Designed by New York-based architect Annabelle Selldorf http://www.selldorf.com, it’s an elegant structure, where classical art and old masters change owners. Only a small part of visitors could ever buy anything, but what a great opportunity for seeing rare artworks available on the market.

This year it wasn’t an individual work, but the stand of Helly Nahmad Gallery http://www.hellynahmad.com, a new exhibitor at Frieze, that  became the talk of the fair. Key 20th century master works, including Lucio Fontana, Pablo Picasso and Morandi were staged within a film-set-like installation; and no one passed by without stopping – at least to see why so many people were congregating there. The presentation was  the total opposite of the clinical, neutral gallery cube designed for close inspection of art works – a breath of fresh air for that reason.

Conceived by set designer Robin Brown, the stand conveyed an essence of bohemian 1960s Paris, with an imaginary home complete with an inspiringly chaotic study, set against a Fontana and a Dubuffet amongst an accumulation of stuff, evoking a state of creative obsession.

Morandis, Miros and Picassos were scattered amid personal notes and photographs into a sprawling composition. The whole presentation had a strange sense of humanism, quite the opposite to the darker narratives seen in many contemporary installations.

The setting provided an opportunity to relate with an eccentric, imaginary collector, and also to realise the transient nature of our data-driven existence. The accumulation of personal belongings, photographs and stacked magazines – in today’s world stored on iCloud and hard drives – is a link to a historical context, a previous existence before the digital age.

There was a sense of nostalgia for the high modernist ideals of the 1960s, before the onset of other types of radical post-modern ideas of the following decades. The space was messy, but also strangely positive and exhilarating.

Brown’s presentation provided many interesting contextual ideas around the paintings and the period when they circulated on the market as avant-garde novelties. Now these works belong to museums, or the homes of the very rich, the ‘art world’ elite, which has become a philosophical subject elsewhere.

“It will be a one-off” Brown said, clearly happy with all the attention that the installation has attracted. The king size bed below the Burri and Twombly paintings, next to Giacometti’s sculptures, with Godard films on the boxy TV, was a nostalgic reminder of French cultural values in dialogue with contemporary installations like Emin’s famous bed.

M.W.

Visiting Venice for the Biennale, we each end up finding our individual trajectories through  its myriad narrow streets and along its blue green canals.  There are merits to getting lost beyond the bustling Giardini and the Arsenale. Accept the inevitable dead ends, and sometimes an off-piste excursion can reveal hidden gems.

Scattered throughout the city there are many collateral events. A short vaporetto ride from San Marco square, on the Island of Giudecca, next door to the Bauers Palladio Hotel is the Zuecca Project Space, showcasing The Yenikapi Project, a collaborative exhibition by Peter Eisenman and Aytac Architects, which focuses on their recent work in Istanbul.

The Istanbul we see today has been thousands of years in the making, yet much of its contemporary development is controversial and lacks sensitivity to the city’s ancient roots. The Yenikapi Transfer Point and Archealogical Park demonstrates an alternative model for contemporary building in the city. The Eisenman/Aytac scheme is complex and gives considered treatment to it’s historic context, shaping itself around the newly uncovered archaeology.

The site is uniquely positioned to reveal the layering of human history in Istanbul. With the architectural drama arising from the collision of the future and the past in a way which could scarcely be more apparent. The project evolved in the years following the discovery of archaeological sites during the construction of a major underground railway station. Preserved in mud of the Byzantine harbour, thirty six shipwrecks, and artefacts from Neolithic through to Roman times. The finds all telling of the changing habitation of Istanbul.

Peter Eisenman, who personally designed the exhibition, draws references to the host city, Venice, and invites comparison with Istanbul. There are obvious similarities between the two, however their differences are more profound. Whereas Venice has rigorously preserved its history, and remains, save for the biennale, almost untouched by modernity, Istanbul is throwing itself headlong into the twenty-first century. The expansion of the city is a vital, contradictory affair which promises to make it an ever more remarkable place. Eisenman’s message here is that contemporary architecture need not be the destructive force it is often perceived to be; rather it has an important role in strengthening and deepening the relationship we have with our history.

On our travels – as when we turn the pages of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities – we come to understand the historic reveries common to all urban environments. In a similar way the Biennale which Rem Koolhaas has curated, is also a forum for discovery where everyone will come away with different opinions. With simply too much to see, and unable to absorb it all in its entirety, we must discern our impression from our accumulated glimpses. With a succession of disparate chronicles, the layers of narrative enrich but do not approach objectivity.

The Yenikapi Project, until 23 November 2013

http://www.zueccaprojectspace.com/

By Peter West

PANAMA CITY

Panama City has always been a connector – between the old world and the new world, between east and west. Now with the new Biomuseum designed by Frank Gehry it is set to become a significant player as a key cultural city with a spectacular biodiversity research center.

The new museum opened with some delay on October 2 and is situated between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the entrance to the Panama Canal to the west, placing it at the forefront of a new cultural and eco-tourist center for the region. It’s the latest interactive museum conceived by Gehry, whose projects in Bilbao, Spain and other cities have helped to revitalize cultural centers.

The vibrantly multi-colored structure is Frank Gehry’s first building in Latin America and will house a sequence of permanent exhibitions, conceived by the studio of his friend Bruce Mau. At the heart there is a public outdoor atrium covered by a lively assemblage of metal canopies in signature Gehry style. The canopies recall a local vernacular of tin roofs and provide protection from frequent tropical rains. From the atrium, views to the Canal and Panama City are a fantastic visual feast.

In addition to content developed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the museum will open up into a 6-acre (2.4-hectare) Biodiversity Park, designed in collaboration with the architect. As a destination and focus for the city, the building, exhibitions and park will provide a major new educational resource for the people of Panama and will no doubt attract visitors from around the world.

Gehry, whose wife is Panamanian, said: “This has been a very personal project for me. I feel close ties to the people of Panama, and I believe strongly that we should all be trying to conserve biodiversity, which is threatened everywhere.”

The Biomuseo will certainly become the eco-tourism destination on many traveller’s list. Last year one of the most intriguing members of the Ace Hotel family – the American Trade Hotel and Hall opened in Panama City. Situated close to the historic old quarter in Casco Viejo in a restored landmark building, the hotel’s interior design reflects the history of Panama as a crossroads, and also features contemporary design and modern luxuries.

 Ace Hotel, Panama, photo: Spencer Lowell http://spencerlowell.com

The American Trade Hall next door to the hotel was originally built as a branch of the National City Bank of New York, financier of the Panama Canal. The design was modeled after the branch at 417 Broadway in New York, an esteemed example of the Moderne style by the architecture firm Walker & Gillette. The space has been restored and is being used for special events.

The Hotel has also opened up a new cafe area – Cafe Undido, with an exhibition of commemorative posters. The shipping line posters reflect on the first passage of the S.S. Ancon through the American continent, paying respect to those who worked to realize the Panama Canal, one of the modern wonders of the world. There will also be a series of conversations exploring the history of Panama as the epicenter at the crossroads of the American continents, a joint venture between the hotel and the Biomuseo.

http://www.biomuseopanama.org/en

http://www.acehotel.com/panama

by Julia Champtaloup

Architecture exhibitions are famously difficult to curate. I remember Jacques Herzog saying he finds them usually boring. But then probably for someone like him there is not so much new ground or ideas to discover in an exhibition aimed at the general public. In any case it’s often hard to figure out the central curatorial idea – if there is one. Apart from just showing a certain architects archive and buildings, which in itself can of course be fascinating too.

The Louis Kahn exhibition at the Design Museum in London is one of the main architecture events this year, along the seminal Sensing Spaces at the Royal Academy. As one of the most respected, and lesser known, figures in the world of architecture it is fantastic to have the opportunity to get to know his work better in this show. And the many models in particular do make you understand much better why Kahn is so important. You get a sense of his formal concepts being such an inspiration: those avant-garde forms from fifty years ago are now familiar elements of contemporary architecture. The structural models by leading architects for today’s skyscrapers and residential buildings, you can see them here. Kahn drew inspiration from patterns in nature, like Gaudi and Le Corbusier in their own ways did too. But you really get a sense of the scientific interests, combined to an individual aesthetic vision that forms Kahn’s legacy.

As light was always such an important part of Kahn’s buildings, it is surprising that the models in the exhibition are not lit in a way that would explain that. Or not really lit in any specific way at all. The meaning of the forms could have been much emphasized by a lighting system that would have evoked a more realistic situation of the buildings, bringing them to life. And make us appreciate Corb’s idea of the play of architectural forms in light in relation to Kahn.

Opened in July the new arts centre created by Hauser & Wirth, one of the leading contemporary art galleries, can be found in idyllic Somerset countryside 120 miles from London www.hauserwirthsomerset.com

The Swiss couple who own the gallery, have been based in Bruton for a few years, and purchased the near-by working farm dating from 1760 for showcasing international artists as well  as activities for visitors and artists’ residencies.

The Gothic facade of the farmhouse building is embellished by Martin Creed’s piece made of white neon from 2011. The seven bedroom house is available for hire and inside there are more artworks by the gallery’s artists, such as the wall painting around the dining room.

The reception and shop inside the cowshed have many original features. The Roth Bar & Grill has become a popular hang-out, with a site-specific bar designed by the son and grandson of Dieter Roth. The style is shabby chic rather than cool and contemporary.

The gallery runs an artists’ residency programme at the farm www.hauserwirth.com/residencies

The summer exhibition includes a show by Phyllida Barlow and works by Sudoph Gupta (main photo), Paul McCarthy and Anri Sala. The listed building has been renovated by architectural firms Laplace & Co and benjamin + beauchamp