The Fondation Louis
Vuitton (the Louis Vuitton Foundation) on the avenue du Mahatma Gandhi in the
16th arrondissement of Paris, newly opened in October 2014, is a
private cultural centre devoted to art – painting, sculpture, art installations,
architecture, music, poetry readings, and cultural events—with both permanent
and temporary exhibitions. It is located at the Jardin d’Acclimatation near the
Bois de Boulogne in west Paris. Architect Frank Gehry was tasked with its
design.
The two-storey design
includes a central hall, glass “sails” and an outside pool, as well as a series
of 11 galleries, an auditorium, café, and an interactive documentation centre. With
computer technology, Gehry developed 19,000 Ductal panels and 12 sails made
from 3,584 unique panels of laminated silk-screened glass, and the manufacture
of the Glulam beams that support the glass sails. “The idea of creating a glass
building that is transparent, ephemeral, and like a cloud is difficult to
achieve in architecture,” said Gehry (FLV Le
Journal, No. 1, October 2014). Consequently, it took six years to complete
from commencement of construction in March 2008.
Inside is a long, narrow
reflecting pool. In the passageway by the reflecting pool, Danish-Icelandic
artist Olafur Eliasson has erected a series of stainless steel and aluminium
triangular columns of different widths with a LED lighting system, called
Inside the Horizon (2014). Two sides of the columns are covered in mirrors. A
third side is covered with a yellow-brown glass mosaic.
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