Sketching to Capture the Essence of an Iconic Design
Looking at the photograph of an Iconic building is not the same as seeing and experiencing the building at the site. You may have taken the photo yourself but looking at the photo sometime later will hardly bring back the excitement of the first encounter. Visiting and touring Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, I could “feel” the energy of the design as I wandered through the interior spaces, the roof garden, and around its exterior.
Like “fluttering-sails” on a magnificent tall ship the “billowing” surface of the façade radiate synergy between reality and perception. The outline of each “sail” described the layers of the building’s complex enclosure, but the “joints” of the titanium panels accentuated the expressive “motion” of the iconic design. Bringing the mental consciousness of the design from my perception into a final, quick, on-site, hand-drawn, sketch was the driving force behind the passion of my efforts.
The design and construction process took almost 16 years! Interesting to note that Frank Gehry said that the CATIA software was not used during the design process, but rather..
“..only to define the building according to the needs of the building industry in the executive phase and in the work site.”
My Personal Favourite!!!!
I’m so glad you decided to post it!
Now we can all admire how wonderful it is.
This building is beautiful, lucky I got a chance to see it while I was down in LA
This is a architectural masterpiece. You are right Catrina, visiting and exploring the building is a memorable experience.
This Blog is very popular, so I added 6 photos that illustrate the stages of the development of the sketch.