Classy & glassy, luxury Louis Vuitton unveils cultural centre entirely in glass

French president François Hollande officially opened a new cultural centre by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton on Monday. The huge ship-shaped structure made of glass, will be open to the public at the end of this week, who can visit it in a botanical garden just outside of Paris. Its uncanny design is the creation of Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry.

Photo of the exterior of the Louis Vuitton Foundation © Reuters

French luxury brand magnate (LVMH) Bernard Arnault says the Fondation was a dream come true. The new culture centre comprises galleries for a permanent contemporary art collection - including works from Arnault’s own collection, but not only - and for temporary exhibitions, an auditorium, bookstore, restaurant, terraces and water features.

Arnault chose Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry to house his dream and carry the flag of the Fondation.

The huge ship-shaped structure sporting curved glass-panelled ‘sails’ and sitting in shallow water, is the work of Canadian-US architect Frank Gehry who also designed the Guggenheim in Bilbao and the Cinémathèque at Bercy in Paris. As a tribute to Gehry, the restaurant overlooking the gardens, from whose ceiling is suspended a shoal of luminous white, fluttery fish, is called Frank.

His massive work is cleverly and discreetly open from one of the galleries onto the sky.
Elsewhere, except for the other galleries where art work is exhibited, the building is open to light.

Overwhelmed at the reception he received in the Paris he loves, Gehry says he now sees things in the finished construction that he’d like to alter. He considers that its shape, which conveys a sense of movement (see above), is also in any case, open to change. The Fondation built in glass, wood, metal and specially white-clad concrete (‘icebergs’) could one day find itself painted in another artist’s colours for example.

“Daniel Buren has an idea for the building, and I hope that one day he will do it. It won’t be my building then. I hope that it will be decorated with pictures done by children.”

The building is as avant-garde as they come. Specialists say it defies the laws of architecture, and is already being studied by future generations.
At 80 something years old, Gehry says one of his aims is to take architecture forward.

“I work with very sophisticated software here I used French software designed by aerospace firm Dassault. It allows you to very precisely detail the building in 3D so there are no possible conflicts. Once you do that you eliminate waste, and stupid things that mean you have to change orders. So you can work within the budget.”

At the same time, the Centre Pompidou in Paris is showing a retrospective of Gerhy’s work.

Frédéric Miygarou the co-curator encourages those who are moved by the Gehry landmark to visit it because he says, “to understand this completely new, experimental building, it’s important to have an overview of all his work, now over fifty years he built his language and has been open to many innovations at different periods.”