Modern Middle East: Part ii, Abu Dhabi Guggenheim by Frank Gehry

(The Saadiyat Island Cultural District model presented at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, November 2007)

Set to open in 2012 as part of the Cultural District on Saadiyat Island is the 29,700 sq. meter Abu Dhabi Guggenheim Museum by Frank Gehry,
a deconstructivist architectural amalgamation which will feature
permanent collections, galleries, a center for art and technology,
archives, a state of the art conservation laboratory and much more.  It sits on a manmade spit jutting out into the Arabian Gulf, proudly situated and standing it’s ground, reflecting into the surrounding azure waters and harking back to the colors of the desert: the blues of the sky & water, the yellow of the sun and sand.  Simply stated, it fits there.  As Gehry says "It’s got to be something that makes sense…if you import something and plop it down, it’s not going to work."

At first glance, one might think, much like I did, having once been an architecture student: it resembles the thesis-floor leftovers after a mass model-making convention glued onto a base.  Gehry once said “You’ve got to bumble forward into the unknown," and he seems to effectively, and without inhibitions, perfect this concept in the Guggenheim.   In fact, the museum bumbles forward into a once-known re-invented, age-old eco-friendly climate engineering practice (which, in my opinion, is a mandatory consideration living in the desert): dispersed throughout the program, near the galleries, are a number of conical-shaped tubes that ultimately will create outdoor spaces, but provide a deeper function: "cooling outdoor spaces based on the very old idea of the open top teepee that draws the hot air out of the space."

"Just as Bilbao established a new level of design excellence, Gehry’s
GAD design brief is to push the boundaries of his own architectural
practice and set the benchmark for museums in the 21st century,” His Highness Sheikh Sultan said recently at a conference on the new development in July.  Gehry really knows how to make an impression, on the world and all the people in it.
And, in a hopeful – and reasonable expectation – although still in conceptual phase, the Guggenheim is sure to bring in
a tourist – or millions – to navigate this four-floor multi-gallery art
jungle-gym.