Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Designed by American architect Frank Gehry, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao building represents an extraordinary example of the most groundbreaking architecture of the 20th century. With 24,000 m2, the Museum represents an architectural landmark of audacious configuration and innovating design characterized by its titanium cladding, providing a seductive backdrop for the art exhibited in it.

Visitors access the Museum by making their way down a broad stairway, an unusual feature that successfully overcomes the height difference between the areas alongside the Nervión River, where the Museum stands, and the higher city level. This way, Gehry created a spectacular structure without it rising above the height of adjacent buildings. It is possible to walk all the way around the Museum, admiring different configurations from each perspective and also a number of artworks installed outside.

Once inside, visitors access the Atrium, one of the signature traits of Frank Gehry's architectural design. With curved volumes and large glass curtain walls that connect the inside and
the outside, the Atrium is an ample space flooded with light and covered by a great skylight. The three levels of the building are organized around the Atrium and are connected by means of curved walkways, titanium and glass elevators, and staircases. Also an exhibition space, the Atrium functions as an axis for the twenty galleries, some orthogonally shaped and with classical proportions and others with organic, irregular lines. The play with different volumes and perspectives generates indoor spaces where visitors do not feel overwhelmed. Such variety has demonstrated its enormous versatility in the expert hands of curators and exhibition designers who have found the ideal atmosphere to present both large format works in contemporary mediums and smaller or more intimate shows.