Frank Gehry - Chair project

Frank Gehry was born in Toronto, Canada on February 28, 1929. He studied at the University of Southern California and Harvard University. Gehry, based in Los Angeles since the 1960s, is among the most acclaimed architects of the 20th century, and is known for his use of bold, postmodern shapes and unusual fabrications. Gehry's most famous designs include the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Lost Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

 

After leaving Harvard, Frank Gehry returned to California, making a name for himself with the launch of his "Easy Edges" cardboard furniture line. The Easy Edges pieces, crafted from layers of uneven cardboard, sold between 1969 and 1973.

Still primarily interested in building rather than furniture design, Gehry changed a home for his family in Santa Monica with the money earned from Easy Edges. The remodel involved surrounding the existing small house with uneven steel and chain-link fence, effectively splitting the house open with an angled skylight.

In 2011, Gehry returned to his roots as a residential designer, unveiling his first skyscraper, in New York City, and in China.

The Santa Monica home, like much of Gehry's work, is an example of the Deconstructivist style—a post-structuralist aesthetic that challenges accepted design paradigms of architecture while breaking with the modernist ideal of form following function. Gehry was one of a number of contemporary architects pursuing this style, which, for years, has been particularly visible in California.

 

Gehry is known for his choice of unusual materials as well as his architectural philosophy. His selection of materials such as corrugated metal lends some of Gehry's designs an unfinished or even crude aesthetic.