Imogen CalderwoodARCHITECT Frank Gehry stuck up a middle finger and swore at his critics before receiving a prestigious prize from King Felipe VI in Oviedo.
The American designer – famous for designing Bilbao’s iconic Guggenheim Museum – slammed modern architecture in a press conference at the Prince of Asturias awards ceremony.
Gehry’s outburst came in response to allegations from a journalist that his architecture is ‘impractical’ and ‘for show’.
The 85-year-old responded by labelling modern architecture as a collection of ‘dumb buildings’.
He said: “In the world we live in, 98% of the buildings built are pure s**t. There is no sense of design, nor respect for humanity, for judgement, for anything.”
“There are a small number of architects doing special work. For God’s sakes just leave us alone and don’t ask such dumb questions.”
Gehry claimed the €50,000 top prize after judges ruled his designs had ‘defined and furthered architecture over the past half century’.
His latest spectacular building, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, has just opened to rave reviews.
At last, the world’s expert on ugly, over-priced, impracticable, pretentious, and just plain bad architecture speaks out. If anyone knows how to build an uglier, less useful, more absurdly ostentatious building than the Bilbao Guggenheim then let him or her step up and give the middle finger to Frank Gehry.
O.K. now, don’t rush. Form an orderly line. There’ll be time for all of us to give him one!
Different strokes for different folks. I LIKE the Guggenheim. I’m sick of the idea of laying stones or bricks on top of each other in order to create a building.