Designed by the Pritzker prize-winning Canadian-American Architect, Frank Gehry, who gained colossal worldwide acclamation after his successful design completion for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. He has since become notorious for his uncommon, abstract architectural style which is globally denoted as the 'Bilbao effect'. Gehry's designs have in a mammoth way, contributed to the economic and cultural revitalization of cities through his iconic, avant-garde and hair-raising architectural superstructures.
Situated on a peninsula of land that juts out from mainland Central America into the Pacific Ocean, the Biomuseo (Museum of Biodiversity) is an abstruse approach to iconic Museum design. The angular building dispenses with traditional architectural lines which could be exceptionally fun, or rather off-putting depending on subjective aesthetic preferences. In a culturally bereft city, with few offerings for tourists who stop over en route to the jungle, mountains, or beaches, hopes were high for creating Panama City’s own Bilbao. Gehry, who is married to a Panamanian, was of course, the cardinal choice for the organizers, who roped the architect into a design conference held in the late 1990s that was focused on the repurposing of land and buildings following the 1999 Canal transfer. Amador, the site of a former U.S. Army base, emerged as a prime spot for a high-profile project. The first foundation for the building was laid on the site in 2006. However, while Gehry's architecture might be what catches visitors first, the museum is not just a novelty of architecture, but was built to tell the story of how the Isthmus of Panama rose from the sea to separate the early ocean in two, forever changing the diversity of the planet.
Erected at a whooping sum of $95 million, the first phase of the building which was commissioned on October 2nd, 2014 is an interpretive centre brandishing the isthmus’s treasure-chest of natural resources and diverse ecosystem through eight galleries (five are open so far). The curves and acute angles of some of these spaces, which flank a central open-air atrium, are needlessly fussy. But they also convey the design’s architectural ambitions. The galleries are each distinct: from a narrow corridor activated by a zigzagging window wall with views to the bay and the distant skyline, to an 'amoeboid' hall, illuminated by a single swooping oculus and home to a menagerie of life-size plaster-cast species of the past and present. The centrepiece is the “Panamarama”, an immersive theatre housed in an orange cube-shaped volume. Immense projections on three walls, as well as the ceiling and glass floor, depict (to the beat of a thumping soundtrack) dramatic footage of the country’s landscapes and wildlife.
The steel canopies take their design cues from to the typical metal roofs of Panamanian and former Canal Zone architecture, and their bright tones are said to be inspired by the 'guacamaya macaw'. The simplistic colours and ostentatious representations on the roof planes are Intended to reflect the effervescent nature of the Latin American culture.
Atop the building’s sturdy concrete structure, the roofs collectively form an elegantly jumbled, sculptural form. Sitting alone on a narrow piece of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the building, adorned in its fantastical plumage, is a grand gesture. But it has many subtleties too, such as the gentle roll in the café roofline, which echoes the swoop of the Bridge of the Americas at the mouth of the canal in the distance. One of its greatest moments is its soaring, central atrium, which, like the surrounding park, is free to the public. Shaded by the canopies and open on its sides, in the typical fashion of buildings in the tropics, it forms a dynamic public space, cooled and animated by the breezes that cross the causeway as the fierce heat beats down above. Muted reflections of the bright colors brush the unpainted undersides of the metal roof—a subtle but stunning counterpoint to their brash outward appearance.
In a country whose unrestrained growth has been spearheaded principally by a commercial inclination, with little regard for architectural excellence or civic investment, the Biomuseo sets an optimistic tone for future developments. The superstructure which is Architect Gehry's first in Latin America has raised the standard for design and construction to challenging heights, and indeed, rapidly become an architectural icon that emphatically elaborates the social system and cultural values of the people of Panama.
As an Architect, I can sure tell you that the amount of brain power and sheer skill required to accurately design and resolve these complex forms is mind boggling, not to talk of the translation of the building's working drawings into built reality. They had to invent softwares and procedures for transcribing directly from physical models into digital space. A technological marvel which gives me nostalgia from my days as a college freshman. As I reminisce, my then year master defined 'Architecture' as "the translation of the spirit of an epoch into space"...a definition that cannot be better portrayed in any other building in the world, other than this one.
Much respect to you, Architect Frank Gehry (Architectural Icon of the 21st century)
Project Size: 44,000 square feet
Project Completion Date: September 2014
Architect: Gehry Partners — Frank Gehry, principal; Larry Tighe, project partner; Anand Devarajan, project designer; Bill Childers, project architect.
Photo credits in descending order from the top:
Main Entry to the building's central atrium - www.archrecord.construction.com
Aerial photo showing the building's site layout - www.archrecord.construction.com
The building's 'Panamarama' theatre - www.archrecord.construction.com
The Guacamaya Macaw bird, where Gehry drew his inspiration for the roof plane colours - www.bioenciclopedia.com
The contrastingly dull-painted steel members carrying the building's roof structure - www.archrecord.construction.com
Architectural Model of Biomuseo displayed at Architect Gehry's on-going exhibition at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France - @ogunedoobinna (Instagram)
3 comments
El Biomuseo is a very creative place created in The Republic of Panama it is also unique place to visit in the world
Very true. Thanks..
EmoticonEmoticon