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Projet d’architecte: la tour Luma à Arles

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Conçue par Frank Gehry, la tour de la fondation Luma à Arles se présente comme une immense sculpture parée de plus de 10 000 briques en inox.

Franck Gehry, connu pour des projets tels que le musée Guggenheim à Bilbao ou la fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris, signe un nouveau « super projet » en France. L’architecte franco-canadien, qui a fêté ses 90 ans en 2019, revient sur le devant de la scène architecturale avec une « tour-sculpture » pour la fondation Luma à Arles.

L’édifice doit ouvrir ses portes au printemps 2021. Il sera la pièce maîtresse du parc des Ateliers de Luma Arles : un lieu dédié à la création artistique installé sur une friche industrielle de la ville.

La tour imaginée par Gehry abritera le centre de ressources artistiques de Luma Arles. On y trouvera à la fois des salles d’exposition et de séminaires, des ateliers d’artistes, des bureaux, une bibliothèque, un café et un restaurant.

Des planchers « pétales »

Le projet de Franck Gehry, où l’on retrouve les lignes déstructurées chères à l’architecte, est un véritable défi technique. Le bâtiment de 56 mètre de haut pour 24 000 m² de surface totale a fait appel à plusieurs innovations.

La structure en est un premier exemple. Au cœur de la tour Luma, on trouve en effet un socle de béton de 8 mètre semi-enterré et une tour centrale « noyau ». Egalement en béton, elle accueillera les circulations (ascenseurs et escaliers) et gaines techniques. Sur ces éléments viennent se greffer quatre tours « pétales » se déployant autour du noyau central.

Les planchers des 10 étages se déploient dans les différentes tours annexes. Ils sont soutenus par une charpente métallique. Le défi architectural tient à ce que chaque niveau est à une hauteur différente. Chaque plancher présente également une forme unique et chaque poutre et chaque poteau de la structure présentent des orientations distinctes.

Façade inox

L’enveloppe de la tour Luma apporte également son lot de défis techniques. Franck Gehry a en effet imaginé une véritable sculpture rendant hommage au massif voisin des Alpilles. Le bâtiment rappelle d’abord ces montagnes par sa forme. D’une certaine manière, il renvoie également leur image à l’horizon aux différents moments de la journée grâce à une surface-miroir.

11 500 briques d’inox

Pour créer cette façade réfléchissante, Gehry a fait le choix de l’inox . Ce sont 11 500 briques de cet alliage, de tailles différentes, qui vont parer les « tours-montagnes » de l’édifice. Celles-ci sont fixées par des attaches non visibles à une coque en métal, fixée à la structure, assurant l’étanchéité à l’eau et à l’air du bâtiment.

Au milieu de la façade, des ouvertures laissent pénétrer la lumière. Au total, 53 « boîtes vitrées », balcons clos en métal et verre, ont été dispersées de manière asymétrique.

Panneaux béton préfabriqués

En dehors de la façade en inox, véritable signature de la tour Luma, une partie de l’édifice comprend également une façade en béton. C’est le cas de l’arrière de la « tour-noyau » centrale et des bâtiments du socle.

Leur habillage se fait avec 1 700 panneaux préfabriqués en béton armé architectonique, fabriqués et posés grâce à un système d’attaches en inox innovantes. La finition des panneaux a été conçue pour rappeler le relief de la pierre des Alpilles. Pour cela, quatre matrices ont été réalisées à partir des prises d’empreintes par protection de silicone effectuées directement sur les parois des carrières des Baux-de-Provence (13).

Rotonde en verre

Dernière composante de l’enveloppe de la tour Luma : une rotonde en verre et métal de 18 mètre de haut qui se déploie au pied de l’édifice. Conçue comme un sas d’entrée, celle-ci a la particularité de ne pas être climatisée.

Pour y assurer un confort climatique optimal en été comme en hiver des modélisations complexes ont été nécessaires. Il fallait en effet tenir compte de la réflexivité de la façade en inox pouvant concentrer les rayons solaires en certains endroits.

Les concepteurs ont fait le choix de vitrages à couche à haut coefficient et de joints résistants à haute température. La verrière est également sérigraphiée et équipée de stores intérieurs motorisés.

A savoir :  la construction de la tour Luma fait appel à plusieurs procédés inédit. Ils ont fait l’objet d’une Appréciation technique d’expérimentation (ATEx), formulée par le Centre scientifique et technique du bâtiment (CSTB). Vous pouvez les retrouver dans cet article de la revue Les cahiers techniques du bâtiment .

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Architecture : La Tour Luma de Frank Gehry à Arles, un nouvel archipel dédié à la création contemporaine

Investis par la Fondation Luma, les anciens ateliers de la SNCF à Arles ont commencé à reprendre vie depuis quelques années. La construction d’une tour par Frank Gehry parachève l’ambitieux projet de faire du site un environnement favorable à des productions contemporaines plurielles.

Plébiscité par le public, Frank Gehry reste un sujet de clivage fort pour les critiques d’architecture : on l’aime ou on le déteste. Son nouveau projet français ne devrait pas faire bouger les lignes. Après la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris , l’architecte canadien vient de livrer un nouveau bâtiment dédié à la création contemporaine, la Fondation Luma à Arles. Véritable totem dominant le plat pays camarguais, sa tour porte ostensiblement sa signature, celle d’un sculpteur de volumes. Dans le film documentaire que lui avait consacré Sydney Pollack, on voyait Gehry chiffonner un papier et, plutôt que de le jeter à la corbeille, s’en inspirer pour dessiner l’esquisse d’un projet. Ici, la silhouette de la Fondation Luma semble trouver sa source dans une manipulation de ce genre. Même si le bardage métallique de ce volume tourmenté fait tout autant songer à de la tôle froissée ou à une compression de César .

Une histoire multiple

La tour de Frank Gehry se dresse dans le Parc des Ateliers, témoin de l’histoire industrielle d’Arles. Là, à partir du milieu du XIXe siècle, des générations de cheminots ont travaillé à la réparation du matériel roulant pour la Compagnie de chemins de fer Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée d’abord, puis la SNCF. Fermées en 1984, ces installations ont été occupées par des entrepôts avant d’être complètement désaffectées. Le site renaît à partir de 2007 lorsque la grande halle est rénovée par l’agence Moatti-Rivière, à l’initiative de la Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Enfin, l’année suivante, la Fondation Luma signe avec la Ville, la Région et les Rencontres Photographiques d’Arles un accord pour développer un projet dans le Parc des Ateliers.

La Tour est ouverte depuis le 26 juin 2021 © Philipp Zechner/Alamy/Hemis

Un signal fort

Luma a été créée en 2004 par Maja Hoffmann, une des héritières de l’entreprise pharmaceutique Hoffmann-La Roche, pour soutenir et produire des projets artistiques expérimentaux. Autour d’elle, elle a réuni un groupe de réflexion avec Hans Ulrich Obrist, Liam Gillick, Beatrix Ruf, Tom Eccles et Philippe Parreno, mais aussi Frank Gehry, pour imaginer ce que pourrait être un lieu de création pour le XXIe siècle, dans cette implantation particulière. «  Le site n’a pas tout de suite été pensé comme un lieu de production, explique Mustapha Bouhayati, directeur général de la Fondation. Cette idée s’est imposée progressivement et c’est le programme qui a mené vers la nécessité de construire un nouveau bâtiment. Le programme, mais aussi l’emplacement. Je rappelle que nous sommes à Arles, un peu hors du circuit et, Maja Hoffmann le dit aussi, nous avions besoin d’un geste fort, d’un signal. Et force est de constater que la tour constitue un signe architectural très puissant. » Mais cet édifice étincelant joue aussi un rôle pratique. «  Quand on produit, il faut des espaces de qualités, de typologies, de tailles, de caractéristiques différentes, de manière à pouvoir créer des formats divers.  » Et le bâtiment de Gehry, d’une certaine manière, complète l’existant et élargit le spectre des possibles en matière de production comme de rapport aux œuvres.

Le bâtiment de la Fondation Luma s’étend sur une très vaste surface © Dronimages

Un bâtiment participatif

Chacun des lieux propose ainsi une configuration singulière, de la halle monumentale au bâtiment de La Mécanique Générale, en passant par Les Forges et La Formation, où ont été installées des résidences d’artistes. Restaurés progressivement par l’agence Annabelle Selldorf, entre 2014 et 2018, ces bâtiments patrimoniaux affichent tous une architecture d’une sobriété fonctionnelle qui se déploie à l’horizontale. Et Gehry a pris à contre-pied cette morphologie pour élever sa tour, un complexe composé de trois strates. La première prend la forme d’un socle vitré circulaire, qui abrite des espaces d’exposition aux normes muséographiques. La tour reçoit aussi la collection d’archives d’artistes, de commissaires et d’expositions, constituée par la Fondation.

Vue intérieure de la Mécanique Générale © Hervé Hote/Luma

Enfin, dans la partie supérieure, aux formes plus libres, sont aménagés des espaces de travail et de projet. «  Nous avons poussé l’expérimentation jusque dans l’architecture, parce que, à l’intérieur du bâtiment de Gehry, tous les espaces ne sont pas finis par l’architecte, ils le seront par les artistes.  » Ce désir d’expérimentation s’étend à d’autres champs de la création, comme le design. Dans ce domaine, les Ateliers LUMA cherchent des réponses à des problématiques actuelles, en mettant au point, par exemple, de nouveaux matériaux d’origine organique, à partir de tournesol, de sel ou d’algues. Certains ont même été intégrés à la construction, notamment dans le café conçu par Rirkrit Tiravanija. Ainsi se développe une sorte d’archipel créatif, dont les différents îlots seraient unis par un lien invisible.

Anciennement dédiée aux ateliers de la SNCF, La Mécanique Générale accueille les expositions temporaires de Luma Arles © Victor Picon/Luma

Une programmation éclectique

Pour son inauguration, la Fondation Luma propose un bouquet varié d’événements, du plus classique au plus inattendu. Dans la première catégorie, on pourra admirer, dans la grande halle, une installation de Pierre Huyghe sur quelque 2000 m², ou encore une sélection de la collection de Maja Hoffmann dans le bâtiment de Frank Gehry, à côté des archives d’Annie Leibovitz. À la Mécanique Générale, une exposition de groupe réunit cinq artistes, parmi lesquels Kapwani Kiwanga et ses Flowers of Africa , Sophia Al Maria et Patrick Staff. Plus surprenant, la Fondation présente, en partenariat avec le Festival d’ Aix-en-Provence , l’opéra L’Apocalypse arabe de Samir Odeh-Tamimi, d’après le poème d’Etel Adnan. Pour cette première mondiale, la grande halle offre les conditions pour une scénographie détonante.

La Fondation Luma, Parc des Ateliers, 33, avenue Victor-Hugo, 13200 Arles, www.luma-arles.org Ouverture le 26 juin.

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La tour Luma ouvre ses portes à Arles

Par Mehdi Dakhli

Un bijou de plus pour Frank Gehry . L'architecte californien inaugure à Arles un nouveau lieu culturel : le bâtiment de la fondation Luma .

Un hommage à la ville millénaire

L'auteur du “Vaisseau de verre” de la Fondation Louis Vuitton ou encore du Musée Guggenheim de Bilbao livre à Arles une architecture contextuelle. Vieille de 2 500 ans, la ville est une merveille de l'Antiquité. Elle est connue pour ses arènes romaines, qui figurent au patrimoine mondial de l'Unesco, et pour les Rencontres de la Photographie , moment culturel incontournable pour les amateurs du médium. L'institution arlésienne rassemble 6 bâtiments, dont 5 historiques, réhabilités, et donc la pièce maîtresse, la tour Luma de Gehry . L'architecte star souhaitait “évoquer l'ancrage local” de la ville avec cette bâtisse. Il créé une hybridation issue à la fois du passé romain de la ville et de ce style futuriste qu'on lui connaît. Cet édifice torsadé, composé de 11 000 panneaux métalliques réfléchissants, rappelle les écailles de poisson, mouvements et formes aquatiques, si emblématiques de l'architecture et du design gehrien. 

La fondation Luma

“Un archipel biologique”

La fondation Luma , c'est un bâtiment mais c'est avant tout un programme. Maja Hoffmann , mécène et collectionneuse suisse, crée la fondation Luma en 2004 en soutenant des projets artistiques et de recherches. Elle pense Luma comme un “archipel biologique” réunissant plusieurs entités avec leurs singularités. Les sujets qui passionnent Maja Hoffmann sont multiples : liés à l'environnement, aux droits de l'homme, à l'éducation et à la culture, tout cela à travers le prisme de l'art. En 2013, Hoffmann , profondément attachée à la Camargue , crée Luma Arles , un campus créatif dédié à son ambition de mécène visionnaire. 

Par Héloïse Salessy

Par Alexandre Marain

Par Radhika Seth

La fondation organise des expositions et accueille artistes, commissaires, scientifiques et innovateurs en tout genre pour des résidences. “Nous avons un logement à disposition, une rémunération, un budget de production et il y a un vrai suivi de la part de l'institution. Les conditions y sont parfaites pour travailler” nous dit l'artiste Sara Sadik , invitée en résidence où elle crée un film sur la jeunesse française des quartiers populaires. Hoffmann s'est aussi entourée d'un comité d'experts “advisors” - le Core Group - dont font partie l'incontournable Hans-Ulrich Obrist , directeur artistique de Serpentine Galleries , les artistes Philippe Parreno et Lima Gillick , ainsi que les directeurs d'institutions culturelles Tom Eccles et Beatrix Ruf .

Luma Arles, 35 Avenue Victor Hugo, 13200 Arles www.luma.org/arles/

Retrouvez aussi sur Vogue.fr : Les bonnes adresses à connaître à Arles cet été Rencontres d'Arles 2021 : les plus belles photographies à voir Les meilleures adresses du City Guide Louis Vuitton à Arles

Par Sophie Rosemont

Par Dr Olivia Remes

Par Lolita Mang

Par Jeanne Ballion

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LUMA Arles / Gehry Partners

• Curated by Paula Pintos
• Architects: Gehry Partners
• Area Area of this architecture project Area:  15831 m²
• Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2021
• Photographs Photographs: Iwan Baan
• City:  Arles
• Country:  France
• Did you collaborate on this project?

Text description provided by the architects. Since its inception in 2013, LUMA Arles has overseen the transformation of the Parc des Ateliers, a 27-acre former industrial site in Arles, France, to create a new creative campus bringing together artists and innovators of the future.

The centrepiece of LUMA Arles is The Tower designed by Los Angeles-based Canadian architect Frank Gehry, which houses exhibition galleries, project spaces, research and archive facilities, workshop and seminar rooms and a café.

LUMA Arles also encompasses six historic, large-scale industrial buildings, five of which have been revitalised by the New York-based German architect Annabelle Selldorf for presentations, installations, exhibitions, and artists’ residences.

The entire campus is set within a public park designed by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets.

Project gallery

Project location

Address: 35 avenue victor hugo, 13200 arles, france.

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法国LUMA Arles园区大厦 / 盖里建筑事务所

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Une tour Gehry, un campus artistique: Luma ouvre ses portes à Arles la Romaine

• le 25/06/2021 à 10:58
• Modifié le 25/06/2021 à 16:34

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La tour de l'architecte Frank Gehry aux 11.000 panneaux d'inox, phare du campus de la Fondation Luma, le 24 juin 2021 à Arles / AFP

Connue pour ses arènes romaines classées au patrimoine mondial, la ville d'Arles s'enrichit samedi d'un nouveau monument, une tour aux reflets métalliques de 56 mètres de haut conçue par l'architecte Frank Gehry, phare du vaste "campus créatif" de la Fondation Luma.

Concepteur du musée Guggenheim de Bilbao enrobé de titane ou du Walt Disney Concert Hall à Los Angeles, Frank Gehry, 92 ans, a enveloppé de 11.000 panneaux d'inox cette tour ceinte à sa base d'un vaste rotonde en verre, le "drum".

Elle abrite des expositions d'art contemporain, une bibliothèque, des bureaux...

De loin, l'édifice torsadé reflète les lumières changeantes de cette ville qui inspira le peintre Van Gogh et prend les teintes calcaire du massif des Alpilles.

Sa structure, rappelant un amas de bloc rocheux, s'embrase d'orangé au soleil couchant.

"C'est une ville qui connaît la monumentalité architecturale depuis qu'elle a été fondée", rappelle le directeur de Luma Arles Mustapha Bouhayati en évoquant les arènes et le théâtre antique romains. La tour Luma est "une continuité de cette monumentalité architecturale (...) on construit ici un peu le patrimoine de demain".

Comme souvent, lorsque l'architecture moderne rencontre le patrimoine ancien, les discussions sont allées bon train entre partisans et détracteurs de la tour, même si après des années de construction, elle semble désormais "entrée dans le paysage" arlésien.

La fondatrice et présidente de la Fondation Luma Maja Hoffmann, le 24 juin 2021 à Arles / AFP

"Le désir est que les gens viennent s'emparer de ce lieu et que les récalcitrants puissent venir voir aussi ce qui s'y passe", déclare à l'AFP Maja Hoffmann, mécène suisse, qui voit l'édifice comme un "phare" de son complexe Luma Arles qu'elle inaugure samedi sur onze hectares d'une friche industrielle située sur les anciens ateliers SNCF du XIXe siècle.

"On franchit une étape importante dans ce projet (...) c'est un chantier de sept ans et dix ans, même plus, d'années de réflexion", ajoute-t-elle.

L'intérieur de la tour Gehry de la Fondation Luma, le 24 juin 2021 à Arles / AFP

Outre sa tour, Luma compte des espaces d'exposition et de performance dans les anciens ateliers des Forges, de la Mécanique générale ou au "magasin électrique".

Mais aussi un skatepark phosphorescent, créé par l'artiste coréenne Koo Jeong A, et un vaste parc public conçu par le paysagiste belge Bas Smets et réalisé en partenariat avec la ville d'Arles.

- "Arles m'a choisie" -

Richissime co-héritière du géant pharmaceutique suisse Roche, Maja Hoffmann navigue depuis des années dans le monde de l'art contemporain, dans la lignée de sa grand-mère.

"Productrice" d'oeuvres, collectionneuse, elle détient des archives des photographes Annie Leibovitz ou Diane Arbus, des oeuvres de la peintre et écrivaine libanaise Etel Adnan, raconte avoir côtoyé Jean-Michel Basquiat à New York.

Une partie de sa collection est présentée de manière "éphémère" dans une des salles de la tour, dont un amusant "Théâtre d'ombres" de l'Allemand Hans-Peter Feldmann associant aussi bien un fouet de cuisine qu'un canard ou une statue de la liberté en plastique.

Combien lui a coûté la création de lieu où elle voudrait que se croisent "l'écologie, les droits de l'homme et l'art"? "Je ne parle pas d'argent dans cette interview", élude-t-elle.

Vue de la tour Gehry de la Fondation Luma en perspective de la ville d'Arles, le 24 juin 2021 / AFP

Pourquoi à Arles, ville de 53.000 habitants? "Ce n'est pas moi qui ai choisi Arles, c'est Arles qui m'a choisie", dit celle qui a pu compter sur le soutien indéfectible de l'ancien maire communiste Hervé Schiavetti et qui rappelle être arrivée dans la ville "à l'âge de 15 jours" avec sa famille.

Son père, l'ornithologue Luc Hoffmann, co-fondateur du Fonds mondial pour la nature (WWF), y a créé une réserve destinée à préserver la biodiversité de la Camargue, ce delta formé entre les bras du Rhône et la Méditerranée, connu pour ses flamants roses. Elle a grandi là et, dans la tour, le sel de Camargue est utilisé en panneaux muraux et les algues du delta en tuiles ou teinture textile.

Son père avait protégé l'habitat pour préserver les espèces, Maja Hoffmann a voulu créer un "écosystème pour la création", estime Mustapha Bouhayati.

Le "drum", la rotonde en verre de la tour Gehry de la Fondation Luma, le 24 juin 2021 à Arles / AFP

Elle affirme vouloir par le projet Luma "augmenter le nombre de visiteurs l'hiver" dans cette ville de contrastes sociaux où près d'un quart des habitants vivent sous le seuil de pauvreté. Cet été environ 190 personnes travailleront à Luma, selon son directeur, une partie en contrat saisonnier.

Le secteur culturel offre depuis longtemps une bouffée d'oxygène à la ville, des Rencontres de la photographie, un des festivals les plus réputés au monde depuis 1970, à la maison d'édition Actes Sud.

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Luma Arles opens in Provence with all eyes on Frank Gehry’s polarizing centerpiece

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Withering Heights

The 27-acre multidisciplinary art and cultural campus Luma Arles made its public debut this weekend at Parc des Ateliers in Arles, a city in the south of France famed for its Roman monuments and warm, artist-enticing southern light. Just ahead of the hotly anticipated launch, new images of the complex’s craggy pièce de resistance, a twisting Frank Gehry -designed tower partially clad in 11,000 shimmering stainless steel panels, began making the rounds.

Although photos of Gehry’s near-completed geometric tower first circulated in the spring of 2020, reactions to the building were relatively muted at the time. Now, at its opening, the response to the Luma Arles Tower—or, simply, the Tower—from online commentators has been highly complimentary, more often than not confounded, but never ambivalent. The social media shellacking has involved snarky comparisons , grimace face emojis , and Photoshop-aided cheekiness .

Topping out at 180 feet, it’s the jagged, metallic top half of the Tower that’s prompted most of the negative online clamor. There’s more to the 12-story building, however: the Tower itself sits atop a metal-framed, glass-sheathed drum 177 feet in diameter that nods to the nearby Arles Amphitheatre. Influenced by the Colosseum in Rome, the two-tiered amphitheater, completed in 90 AD, is among the top UNESCO World Heritage Site-listed attractions in the ancient city.

While the lower half of the structure references famed Roman remnants, its highly conspicuous top half pays homage to the region’s natural beauty, namely the rugged limestone peaks of Les Alpilles, a mountain range that rises from the Rhône Valley. Gehry has also cited Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night as an inspiration for the tower’s design. Immediately following a certain incident involving a razor and a mutilated appendage, the Dutch post-Impressionist committed himself to a psychiatric asylum at the Monastery of Saint-Paul de Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a commune located just to the northeast of Arles. Starry Night , which depicts the view from his bedroom at the monastery and prominently features Les Alpilles, was one of hundreds of paintings produced by Van Gogh during his sojourn in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence from 1889 to 1890.

As Gehry elaborated in his mission statement for the Tower:

“Les Alpilles have played a significant role in the cultural memory of the region and abroad. They figure prominently in Van Gogh’s paintings from the time he spent in Arles in which he depicted the mountains with visible, segmented strokes emphasising the dynamism and texture of the terrain. The manner in which Van Gogh rendered Les Alpilles influenced the development of the exterior cladding of the building. The design of the tower seeks to capture the movement of discrete elements across a surface. This manner of breaking down the surface to visible modules became an important theme in the surface development of the building as it reinforced the idea of a ‘painterly building.’ The building changes in appearance as one moves around it, as each of the panels reflects light dierently. Over the course of the day the building will take on the colors and hues of the surrounding context and sky, adding the impression of movement across the facades.”

Spread out across 170,400 square feet, the Tower includes exhibition galleries, seminar rooms, studios, auditorium, a library, cafe, and archival and research space for Swiss art collector and entrepreneur Maja Hoffmann’s Zurich-headquartered contemporary art nonprofit, the Luma Foundation . At the top of the new landmark building, a viewing terrace provides sweeping views of Parc des Ateliers and beyond.

Visitors to the Tower will find a bevy of newly commissioned artworks, including large-scale and site-specific ones: Danny by Philippe Parreno, Olafur Eliasson’s Take your Time, a new iteration of Carsten Höller’s Isometric Slides, Christian Marclay’s  The Clock, a monumental ceramic wall mural by Etel Adnan, Laguna Gloria by Liam Gillick, and more. Also opening in the tower’s galleries is The Impermanent Display, an exhibition of works pulled from the LUMA Foundation/Maja Hoffmann collection, featuring Rirkrit Tiravanija, Arthur Jafa, Urs Fischer, Paul McCarthy, Precious Okoyomon, and others. An additional exhibition, Three Generations: Works from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation Collection , features works from a slew of avant-garde greats including Bruce Nauman, Cy Twombly, and Rosemarie Trockel.

An ambitious $175 million redevelopment project completed in phases concluding with Gehry’s centerpiece tower, Luma Arles breathes new life into a former rail yard populated by seven historic industrial buildings. Four of the existing structures have been converted into exhibition and performance spaces by a renovation team headed by Selldorf Architects . Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets oversaw the design of the surrounding public parkland and gardens, which officially opened to the public this past weekend alongside Luma Arles Tower. Prior to Hoffmann acquiring Parc des Ateliers from the city in 2013 and formally launching Luma Arles that same year, the railyard had been abandoned since the mid-1980s.

Other major buildings and spaces that comprise the Luma Arles campus at Parc des Ateliers are: La Mécanique Générale, an exhibition space with workshops for Atelier Luma opened in 2016; La Grande Hall, an exhibition space renovated in 2007; Les Forges, an exhibition space opened 2014; La Formation, a building dedicated to artists’ residences that opened in 2018; Le Réfectoire, a restaurant opened in 2020, and Hôtel du Parc, a small hotel that opened this year in the old Le Médico-Social building. All were renovated by Selldorf Architects with the exception of La Grande Hall, which predated Luma Arles under an initiative of the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur Region.

“With every space in the complex we seek to create a balance allowing the 19th-century industrial vocabulary to coexist simply with contemporary purpose, all the while creating well-proportioned spaces with controllable natural light and clear circulation,” said Annabelle Selldorf, founding principal of the New York-based Selldorf Architects.

Major exhibitions that opened this weekend across the larger Luma Arles campus include Pierre Huyghe’s After UUmwelt in La Grande Hall and Prelude, a group show presenting the works of Sophia Al Maria, Kapwani Kiwanga, P.Staff, and Jakob Kudsk Steensen at La Mécanique Générale. The Smets-design landscape also serves as a backdrop to a handful of major outdoor installations now on view including a full-scale, glow-in-the-dark skatepark designed by Koo Jeong A; Krauses Gekröse , a monumental sculpture by Franz West, and Carsten Höller’s  Seven Sliding Doors Corridor.

Visiting Luma Arles, including the Tower and the other exhibition spaces, is free but requires advance reservations. Open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., the park at Parc des Ateliers is also free but does not require a ticket.

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Frank Gehry’s Luma Arles tower to open in south of France

Building is architect’s tribute to Arles’ most famous residents: the Romans and Vincent van Gogh

Rising from the skyline of Arles, the tower appears like a futuristic structure from a Marvel movie with nearly 11,000 stainless steel panels gleaming in the Provençal sun.

Here, at what was once the centre of the Roman empire in France, this twisting structure is the 92-year-old architect Frank Gehry’s tribute to Arles’ most famous residents: the Romans and the artist Vincent van Gogh.

The tower, with its glittering facade meant to evoke Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night, will be the literal high point of a new “creative campus” called Luma Arles, a multidisciplinary art and culture complex sprawling over 27 acres at the Parc des Atéliers, the site of former railway workshops.

At the base of the tower is a vast steel and glass rotunda, also by Gehry, nicknamed the Drum, a structure he said was inspired by the city’s noted Roman amphitheatre.

At a press conference on Friday, Gehry explained his thinking behind the building that has taken 13 years and a reported €150-€225m to complete.

“I visited here when I was living in Paris and studying Roman architecture and I was very moved by it,” he said. “This is my first Roman building.”

The Tower’s opening exhibition will include works by Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz, Olafur Eliasson and others, and will have a permanent room dedicated to a rotating display of the collection of Maja Hoffmann, whose Luma Foundation commissioned the building.

The Swiss film producer and philanthropist’s grandmother, Maja Sacher, was a well-known collector of Picasso works, and her father, Lukas Hoffmann, was a co-founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

In France, Gehry is best known for his Iceberg building housing the Louis Vuitton Foundation in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, a cloud of glass that opened in 2014. Worldwide he is famous for the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain.

“I love the light in Arles and the wind, the mistral that is here,” he said. “I liked the idea of capturing and reflecting the light in this region and this city. It is not a cold building … the metal has a softness about it, even inside. It plays with the light in the extraordinary way I hoped for. It is part of the city and I wanted it to be soft and welcoming.”

Maja Hoffmann, who was born in Switzerland but grew up in the south of France , said the “creative campus” of Luma Arles, which will be free to enter, was the foundation’s gift to the city.

“I hope the people of Arles will get to know this tower. It represents a notion of hope, an archipelago where everything is possible. It is a place where the past, present and future come to mix,” she told reporters on Friday.

Patrick de Carolis, the mayor of Arles, said Gehry had produced “something extraordinary” for the town.

“It’s also an extraordinary challenge that Arles now had to rise to in terms of having the infrastructure, including hotels and transport, to welcome the visitors it will attract,” De Carolis said. “Now we have to be able to match that level of ambition.”

Gehry – Canadian-born and US-based – worked with two Belgian architects, Bas Smets and Jan Boelen, to create the building.

“It has been a long and interesting, sometimes difficult but great journey to get here, but I am very proud of what Maja and I have created together,” he said.

“I tried to make a building that was welcoming and inviting. The Drum is not architecturally complicated. At street level it’s meant to invite you in. It’s not postmodern. It’s trying to be something of its time, and it has feeling, I hope.”

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Frank gehry’s luma arles tower.

Luma Arles tower by Frank Gehry – Photo by ©Adrian Deweerdt.

Architecture – The LUMA Foundation announced the opening of LUMA Arles on 26 June 2021. The 27-acre creative campus at the Parc des Ateliers in the city of Arles will bring together artists and innovators of the future. At its heart is Frank Gehry ’s spectacular 15.000 square metre tower.

• RELATED STORIES : Discover more French architecture and design on Archipanic…

Drone view of Luma Arles campus – Photo by ©Dronimages.

“ We wanted to evoke the local, from Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region. Its central drum echoes the plan of the Roman amphitheatre .” Said Frank Gehry. The LUMA Arles tower will house exhibition galleries, project spaces and the LUMA’s archive and research facilities, alongside workshop and seminar rooms, an auditorium and a café.

The Arles project is the brainchild of Maja Hoffmann, who established the LUMA Foundation in 2004, as a leading international philanthropic organisation. The Foundation focuses on the direct relationships between art, culture, environmental issues, human rights, education and research.

Maja Hoffmann, Founder and President of the LUMA Foundation, said: “ There is one driving-metaphor for LUMA at the Parc des Ateliers: that of a living organism. As such the balance between form and function determines its viability. It is about composing a polyphonic score where everything is ordered, yet where everything is possible .”

Aereal view of Luma Arles campus – Photo by ©Herve Hote.

The campus is also home to seven former railway factories, four of which have been renovated by Selldorf Architects as exhibition and performance spaces. The surrounding gardens and public park are designed by landscape architect, Bas Smets .

Maja Hoffmann with Frank Gehry – Photo by ©Annie Leibovitz.

• All photos: courtesy of the LUMA Foundation.
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atelier LUMA uses algae, salt, and bioplastics to design it large-scale laboratory in arles

Inaugurating the newly-renovated le magasin électrique  .

On May 27, 2023, the LUMA Arles cultural center in Arles, France inaugurated the opening of a new workspace for its research and design laboratory, Atelier LUMA. Jointly with BC architects & studies and Assemble Studio, Atelier LUMA uplifted and transformed Le Magasin Électrique, a historical building in the Parc des Ateliers, into an experimental hub welcoming the public and professionals alike through visits, conferences, projections, and workshops. The building renovation process provided the opportunity to implement Lot 8, a long-term research project for developing a bioregional architecture. Following its inaugural weekend, this new space will continue to be animated by special events, regular programming, and a gradual transition of the laboratory’s activities to the newly-renovated building.

Beyond its converted function, the building is also the three-year site of an experimental building project designed to serve as a pilot program in the field of renovation. This includes the development of biomaterials anchored in the Arles bioregion and establishing a network for local and international expertise to share acquired knowledge. ‘ Operating as a true large-scale prototype, the project brought together a wide array of local partners and served as the occasion for collective workshops and training sessions on the materials and techniques developed ,’  writes  LUMA Arles . 

about atelier luma’s design and research mission in arles

Atelier LUMA (see more  here ) is deeply connected to its geographic and cultural environment: the Camargue region, the Alpilles mountains, and the Crau plains. While its first research projects took place in the Parc des Ateliers in 2016, the laboratory is the product of planning and reflection that began in 2008. The research seeks to identify issues impacting the bioregion and address appropriate solutions, mainly through valorizing local know-how and undervalued or wasted resources. The methods developed at Atelier LUMA are shared far beyond their originating bioregion, helping to guide local transition processes across the globe. 

‘ We began Atelier LUMA by mapping the territory of Arles and the Camargue, identifying layers of resources and imagining ways they could be reassembled or reconfigured to contribute to its adaptation to changing environmental and social conditions ,’ shares Jan Boelen, Artistic Director of Atelier LUMA . ‘ This initial anchoring in a specific environmental and social space has come to shape our practices into bioregional ones, no matter where we are working ‘. 

using biosourced materials for the building renovation 

Renovated and buffed, Le Magasin Électrique is a ‘ space of possibilities, a canvas ,’ says Boelen . It naturally alludes to a building that is never finished, instead perpetually transforming through new discoveries, encounters, and stories. Following the building’s conditions, the laboratory collaborated with the team at Belgium-based BC architects & studies and UK-based Assemble studio (see more here ) to renovate its space, starting from the coating of the facade to the socket covers. Structural elements such as walls and partitions were produced from waste earth and minerals, as well as agricultural coproducts.

The interiors’ acoustics and finishing were done with panels of sunflower fibers, rice straw, and soil from the bioregion. The terrazzo floor, bathroom tiles, stains, door handles, and light fixtures result from years of research into algae, salt, bioplastics, earth, and enamels in collaboration with local partners.

an experimental laboratory with exhibition spaces

Program-wise, Atelier LUMA’s new research and prototyping space consists of a biolab, wood, ceramics, textile, and DTP workshops, office spaces, a dye house, a materials testing lab, and a functional plant garden. The Agora, a large central space in the building, hosts temporary exhibitions and events open to the public. Ultimately, visitors are invited to discover its many activities from within by exploring the 2000 sqm of research laboratories, production workshops, and resource center and through an exhibition detailing the restoration of the building. To the curious readers, if you happen to be in Arles, make sure to tour that new center seeped in history, exploration, and research.

 Bloc B window display, Le Magasin Électrique, LUMA Arles, France | image © Maria Lisogorskaya

image © Victor&Simon – Iris Millot

image © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Bioregional Design Practices exhibition in the Agora, Le Magasin Électrique, LUMA Arles, France | image © Victor&Simon – Joana Luz

Existing stone wall, Le Magasin Électrique, LUMA Arles, France | image © Adrian Deweerdt 

algae stained plaster prototype | image © Laurens Bekemans

project info:

name: Le Magasin Électrique 

location: Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France

renovation architecture: Atelier LUMA | @atelier_luma

collaborators: Assemble Studio | @assembleofficial , BC architects & studies | @bcarchitectsandstudies

inauguration date: May 27, 2023 

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designboom will always be there for you

LUMA Arles art complex, featuring a shiny new Frank Gehry tower, to open in June

Frank Gehry 's team is wrapping up another high-profile project this year: after the $1-billion mixed-use development The Grand topped out in Downtown Los Angeles this week (aiming for completion in late 2021), the LUMA Arles art complex in the south of France just announced its intention to open on June 26 (government-issued Covid-19 guidelines permitting).

Construction on the Gehry-designed tower, the centerpiece of the 27-acre campus at the Parc des Ateliers in the city of Arles, began in 2014 . The 15,000 sqm / 161,500 sqft high-rise, finished with 11,000 stainless steel panels, will house exhibition galleries, project spaces, research and archive facilities, an auditorium, and a cafe, alongside workshop and seminar rooms.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Luma Arles (@luma_arles)

"We wanted to evoke the local, from Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region," Frank Gehry described his building. "Its central drum echoes the plan of the Roman amphitheater."

The campus also features seven former railway factories, four of which have been renovated by New York-based Selldorf Architects as exhibition and performance spaces. The surrounding gardens and public park are designed by Belgian landscape architects, Bureau Bas Smets .

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Katherine Guimapang

natematt what is this object? It looks so familiar but I can't place it.

It's a Lego crystal. I'm pretty sure it was introduced in the mid nineties with their Aquanauts line.

Non Sequitur

That’s it! My son never had a silver one, he had a blue one.

I think the original use of the piece was in silver for the aforementioned line. So that's my memory. Though I think many after were neon.

It's known as a 1x1 Rock Crystal 5 point and it was released for the first time in silver/chrome back in the late grunge year of 1995. The first line of lego sets to have it was Aquazone. I may have several myself.

minecraft gehry copying itself, disappointed at the straight elevator towers though.

With every new project Gehry reaches a new low.

Considering where he started that's really saying something.

joaquinvargas

At the very least, I'm intrigued by it. It's fairly novel (to me) and isn't his usually predictable stuff. Would you like it any more or less if somebody else designed it?

Nam Henderson

If Gehry did something worth praising I'd be happy to do so. Aside from the Chiat/Day building I have yet to see one, and he's running out of time.

sameolddoctor

He's running out of time for you to go see his praiseworthy work? There's plenty out there.

He's running out of time to make good architecture. Unless of course you think good architecture is just a series of stylistic experiments. As far as I am concerned that is an exercise in ego, not architecture. https://archinect.com/forum/thread/134061675/what-s-good-architecture

Stylistic experiments don't disqualify something from being good architecture. Dismissing an entire oeuvre as an exercise in ego is lazy criticism. Many Gehry buildings perform beautifully for their users and enhance their communities. It seems being shiny is just offensive to your tastes.

Putting aside the obvious structural inefficiency, expense of construction, and difficulty of maintenance one is left with aesthetics based on form, context, and subjective appearance. That is not what defines good architecture. Aside from that it looks like a bizarro turd that dropped from a giant mechanical cow's ass.

Miles, what's your view on baroque or renaissance architecture? both are largely just a bunch of stylistic flourishes. the florence cathedral has a huge wasteful dome which adds no useful space to the building, and the oversized doors are too heavy for a single person to push open. not to mind the difficulty of cleaning all that marble.

The great renaissance cathedrals were the height of craft and technology at the time, and considering the difficulties in restoring Notre Dame, the craft is still unmatched. In theory at least the cathedrals were a higher purpose, and even if they weren't (a different argument) they have transcended to become truly iconic spiritual places. Many took hundreds of years to construct.

To discuss this in the context of Gehry is inane.

Actually, I like the way this irregular shape plus the circle of the base work with the straight geometry and parallel lines of the other buildings. See the last photo, above.

The overhead shots may give a skewed sense of how it appears to residents. From the street it is not so imposing:

And Arles, at least in this area, is really flat, so people won't have those views. It provides a marker and an accent for an area that could stand a punch.

The view from further out:

"Starry Night" it is not. It reminds me more of the flame of the Statue of Liberty. But Starry Night is how residents will remember it, so it will take on those associations and images regardless.

this looks like a fascinating and complex building for a banal site in a city more famous for its representations in art than its actual qualities. i would actually travel to arles to visit, which isn't something i considered doing before. in that sense, it's a likely success at meeting the clients goals. besides having a compelling weird beauty.

I'll join you in that trip. One of my complaints about Gehry's museums is that even his best work upstages the work displayed, which could well be the case with this building. But here it brings attention to the other exhibition/performance space, for the better. See the Selldorf work, below. The Gehry could well bring status to the center, for reasons good and bad, and make it a vital art center. Again, I like the Gehry only in the context of the entire arts complex. I assume it will get more landscaping.

It's not just a tower. It's a beacon.

I honestly misread the headline as "Slimy New Frank Gehry Tower".

Miles Jaffe

I'm hesitating to read commentary on this building because people love to hate on Gehry. I think this building looks wild and experimental, and it comes at a time when architecture culture is so painfully repetitive and banal. Furniture design is much more interesting and experimental, honestly. Even Brutalism nostalgia is more satisfying than most of what gets built today. Gehry is one of the few high profile architects still creating challenging and experimental architecture. 

"wild and experimental" just like my clients want to waste their money.....

Why assume that the architect is disobeying the wishes of their client? It's not like these large cultural clients are hiring Gehry to produce a shrinking violet of a building that nobody will notice. They know what they're buying.

you're the one assuming "wild and experimental " has any value in this case, the building is not wild or experimental, rooms are square and plumb, windows had to hatch themselves out of the pixelated "skin" and such skin will begin leaking in 2 weeks. poor attempt at figuration without any consideration for context, use or buildability.

You implied that this is a "waste" of the client's money without knowing what the client values. And yes, this is getting attention because it looks wild and it likely is experimental, based on what we know about Gehry's past, his designs tend to use cutting edge tech and pushes fabrication capabilities. I don't know what else to say. Sure, it isn't reinventing every building system. But that doesn't mean it's not experimental.

i've found liking gehry and his works (i do, a lot) to be almost a political statement within architecture that offends both high-grade academic architects and the ordinary hacks doing big box stores and sfh res. i think that's the effect he seeks too ;)

it appears neoliberalism is still holding strong.

Isn't all architecture currently architecture of neoliberalism? A minimal concrete luxury condo building by Tadao Ando, a neotraditional luxury condo tower by RAMSA, or an undulating steel clad luxury condo tower by Frank Gehry. They're all operating under the same economic conditions with the same agenda. Even the carefully restored townhouse or adaptive reuse project. They are all the "architecture of neoliberalism" .

government funded projects are not operating under the same agenda, for one. there are many counter examples of everyday architecture that do not fit under your luxury-oriented examples.

I'm saying that I don't see an architectural aesthetic unique to neoliberalism. There are banal private buildings and banal public buildings, spectacular and luxurious private buildings and spectacular and luxurious public buildings. I just visited the brand new Eisenhower Memorial in DC. That was also designed by Gehry. It was grand, perfectly crafted with exotic materials, and probably very expensive.

The Eisenhower Memorial consists mostly of brutalist blocks of varying sizes. The statues are nice, but come on.

if there is an aesthetic (which i'm not claiming), gehry would be it.

They are smooth stone blocks and columns. I don't know that it qualifies as "brutalism" in 2021, also since they are not raw concrete. Also, there is a massive metal tapestry that is the length of the entire block. I've never seen anything like it.

A jumbled mass of steel and glass. It looks like a building that was unsuccessfully sent through Star Trek's transporter and reassembled only partially. Experimental art is one thing, in that a person can either partake of it or not. Experimental architecture is another, inescapable to those who live around it or, even worse, are forced to live/work in the buildings. This is an assault in architectural form.

It looks literally like what it is, a unique landmark building created for a cultural institution by Frank Gehry. Are people new to architecture? Are they not familiar with this model? Are they not familiar with Frank Gehry?  This is not new. 

I've disliked Gehry's designs for many years, so yes, I'm quite familiar with both him and the deconstructivist style of which he is the biggest offender. Deconstructivism is an interesting thought experiment and I've enjoyed some of it in art and literature. But for physical spaces it's abominable. It's the height of egotism. People have to live in and near these things. They are Steve Martin's cruel shoes writ large, more a childish repudiation of previous styles than an actual style itself. It's a teenager railing against his parents, in building form, and it's just as impulsive, impetuous and, in hindsight, embarrassing. Only in this case, we're stuck with it. We can't learn and move on. Not to mention the maintenance on these things is horrendous. So no, you're suggestion that dislike of Gehry can only come from ignorance is unfounded.

I've visited many of his buildings and I've enjoyed most of them. I think this has a lot to do with the perspective of the visitor. If you enjoy design culture in general, and the various strands and influences that emerge throughout history, you probably won't go around imagining the "ego" of the creator, or more accurately, the team of creators behind the thing. "we're stuck with it" Most of us will never even visit this building. And even for people who live near it, it's easy to avoid one building in town that you don't like. We don't get to curate our built urban environment to our own personal specifications.

Again, you seem to imply that it's mere ignorance, this time of "design culture," that influences dislike of Gehry's designs. I fully understand the architectural lineage, the "strands and influences," that led to deconstructivism. I simply think there's no reason to deconstruct architectural styles other than as thought experiments, unless it's the ego of the architect who wishes to make his mark upon the profession. The fact that "most of us will never even visit the building" is both a blessing and quite a weak argument for its quality. That's like if someone has COVID and we look on the bright side by saying, "well at least he lives far away." Finally, the inhabitants of a community should absolutely have some say in how their public spaces appear. I've seen way too many empty brutalist benches in awful concrete expanses to believe that people actually like this stuff. 

I don't think Gehry would receive these commissions if there were not a lot of people out there who appreciate his architecture as much as I do.

Also, It should be mentioned that the construction quality of Gehry projects seem to be better than other "starchitect" buildings I have visited. For example, the Broad Museum and the Culture Shed have serious quality problems. I've seen Nouvel buildings and Zaha Hadid buildings that are also very disappointing up close.

The ruling class (financial backers and the cultural elites who drive these projects) likes this stuff, no doubt. But most people don't. Why are pre-war buildings and neighborhoods so highly sought after?

even most of the architects on this page aren't enjoying it- should tell you something.

i mean it literally looks like a polished crystal turd. is this really exemplary avant-garde architecture?

@davvid Honest questions: What do you like about it? Do you find any sense of harmony or beauty in the design? Is a public building the right venue/medium to evoke disharmony if that is the intent?

@square The training that architects receive has a lot of biases built into it. I've encountered many architect friends who hate anything postmodern, anything too playful, and anything that they could describe as "ironic" or "pastiche". Personally, I think I experienced an architectural education that was very much from a white, straight, male perspective. Anything too campy, too colorful, or too decorative received bad reviews. We were even trained to not have any color in our architectural models. Many of the architects that emerged as "starchitects" in the 80s, 90s, and 00s were inspired to break those rules and to embrace visually striking materials, color, and surprising manipulations of form.

@joaquinvargas To your comment about the architectural tastes of the ruling class, plenty of them like traditional architecture. Trump even created an executive order called "Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again" mandating that traditional and classical architectural styles be used for federal buildings. Biden immediately reversed that order. Both are part of the ruling class. 

To your second comment, I like the texture of the spiraling reflective panels and how they contrast with the protruding windows. I think it probably has a nice shimmering effect in the sunlight. The form is definitely weird, but I enjoy weird forms.

I first saw a model of this project about five years ago in a gallery in Tokyo was having an exhibition on Gehry's work over the years.

Personally, I think I experienced an architectural education that was very much from a white, straight, male perspective.

wow, i haven't heard the argument that gehry is subverting the patriarchy before. it's novel, but gehry typifies the white, straight male perspective. in fact, if we're talking about identity and class here, there are plenty of those in the "working class," and who aren't white, who prefer normal architecture that simply works for them.

not sure what you're arguing here.

Gehry is an architect who did subvert an aesthetic hegemony in Architecture. Zaha Hadid is another, and we all know that she attracted as much hatred as Gehry does, if not more. I think that the hegemony I am referring to is probably most exemplified by Richard Meier.

i think davvid really likes this project.

Not a bad tribute to the one-eared lunatic who produced one of the best known paintings of all time. Plus the echoes of Arles rocks and amphitheater.

Gehry, however, is not going to do anything literal. Van Gogh works with thick, swirling paint that distorts and transforms his subject for emotional effect. Gehry works with architectural elements, brick-like aluminum panels, stacked, staggered, and twisted to produce swirling shapes, those box-like windows that stick out and are erratically placed, rather comic and, of course, a little crazy. The expected regular tower has been posited and distorted in a variety of ways—like Van Gogh's sky and trees—whose solid facades will be fractured by multiple reflections or dispersed in bright reflection. All of this is anchored and qualified by the straight, regular, solid, stone shaft alongside. There's a dialogue here between light and solid, nature and edifice, without resolution.  Gehry doesn't have a picture frame to contain and charge the composition. Rather he has to relate openly to the entire sky. This shaft serves the purpose of a frame.

It's tempting to compare Van Gogh with Gehry. Neither creates work that is especially intellectual, fits neatly with esthetic movements, or stands in any clear relationship to tradition or the present. Both produce creations that are personal, idiosyncratic, and, again, a little crazy. Or a lot. And however much they both distort and challenge, their work is compelling and readily accessible, which must account for the popularity of both.

It's the association with Van Gogh that redeems the Gehry for me. There's nothing gratuitous about what he's doing here. Instead we are taken to a well known figure and work, and with those to personal questions and wanderings, our own desire for a little madness that still, in another light, makes sense to us.

I'm skeptical of reference to the amphitheater, but the tower needs a base, a regular one for contrast, and a circle adds another form in the overall mix.

In assessing the Gehry, it is important to remember type: this is an art center. It has to evoke visual creation.

And I suspect this project will be quite successful. It will bring attention to this center—and attendance. People will just want to climb the tower to say they have climbed it as well as look out on Arles, their perspective challenged by their ascent, where they are standing.  I'm curious to see the interior. Maybe they will look at the art along the way.

It will also bring attention to Arles, a family nondescript place that could use a place marker. I don't know what other reference might better serve it, or stand better in our cultural confusion today. It is a figure of our times, for better and/or for worse.

I'm guessing it will run into all kinds of maintenance problems.

"a fairly nondescript place"—arrrgh

The Selldorf refurbishing of the train sheds merits attention. More pictures at their site .

yup. polished turd. especially the first one. the color block version is the best one.

Why is that even a valid critique? I'm thinking of "clay" sculptures by Urs Fischer, one displayed in front of the Seagram building. They really did look like feces. But they also looked like clay. Why is that form "bad"?

it's not a critique, it's an observation.

@davvid The form of feces is bad for a building, full stop. Not sure how that isn't apparent. I'm not interested in postmodern deconstructions that require a working knowledge of critical theory and architectural history in order to "appreciate" a building. That kind of thing is fun in art, but not in permanent, public physical spaces.

@joaquinvargas I see it as a tower. Is it possible that you're just struggling for words to describe a complex shape?

@joaquinvargas Also who really thinks that a visitor needs to know about critical theory to experience a work of contemporary architecture? This is so unbelievably silly and condescending toward the general public. We experience contemporary architecture all the time.

it's not condescending, it's reality (i find this line of argument funny). the majority of people do not like garbage like this.

It is condescending to suggest that the public is incapable of enjoying contemporary architecture unless they have some specialized knowledge.

Also, I don't think that your hatred of Gehry stems from a concern for "real people", whoever they are. I think it is entirely about you and your personal dislike of weird architecture. I think it is the non-normative aesthetic here that offends you. When you say "real people", I'm reminded of when Sarah Palin said "real America". She meant her own personal America. And you mean, your own personal tastes.

please show me the data that a large majority of people enjoy gehry's work, and we'll talk. that is your thesis, right? that the masses love gehry and starchitecture in general?

judging from this page, an audience you would think sympathetic to your claims, you're starting in a pretty deep hole.

Who says that a majority needs to enjoy every type of architecture? We live in a pluralistic world with a diversity of aesthetics that speak differently to different people. David Adjaye's work is going to be different from RAMSA's work. RAMSA's work is going to be different from MAD Architects. MAD Architects is going to be different from Lacaton & Vassal. I am more of a fan of that discourse than I am a fan of any one style.

The theme here follows the conception of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, where the inspiration for the form was supposedly the contents of an inverted waste bin. 

Garbage in, garbage out.

meanwhile, real architecture, for real people, that does require the elevation of their tastes to the avant-garde

https://archinect.com/news/art...

"real people" lol 

Do we judge a neighborhood park by the same standards as an amusement park? I like my neighborhood parks...but amusement parks are fun too.

The architecture approach of Gehry's work is not the norm anymore. The focus has shifted heavily on social, sustainability, vernacular aspect. Iconic form making is a thing of the past. Gehry of course can still ride on the reputation and get rich clients to continue to build his usual style of projects. Emerging architects thought, will not get far with only focus on forms. Or should I say, struggle to obtain clients willing to spend such money on iconic forms. Honestly, the more I am into actual practice. The more I feel how "Architecture" is behind political and economical forces. 

Economics rule. Politics is just economics by other means.

In NYC, I think that luxury real estate development is driving architecture culture. And in order to apologize for that development or distract from it, developers and cities partner up to create pseudo-public spaces with access to water, bike paths, public art, event spaces, and shopping malls. The High Line is probably original example of that and Hudson Yards is the hyper-capitalist next generation of it.

yes, there will always be bootlickers for the gehrys etc (who typically happen to be the people willing to work ridiculous hours for little pay), but like you said jay, the conversation is shifting, for the better, towards social concerns rather than aesthetic debates about formalism.

we'll have to see though if the talk delivers, or if like miles says, economics continue to trump the conversations.

“ The architecture approach of Gehry's work is not the norm anymore.” it never was...

@Square. Are you calling young architectural workers "bootlickers"? Shouldn't we be enforcing fair wage laws and making college free, not ridiculing architects for working at firms that inspire them?

only those who chose to work at firms that exploit them because they are simply "inspired," who are also perpetuating that very system of exploitation. this can happen while also pursuing "fair wage laws" and reforming the college system. these things aren'tmutually exclusive.. you can both choose to not be complicit in starchitecture culture and fight for better working conditions. in fact, it's probably important that you do both..

you could instead choose to work at a firm like i do that does great design work, pays you well, and respects your time.

Do you even know if workers are paid less at Gehry Partners than the average firm, or are you shooting from the hip? And btw, we are all participating in a system that exploits us. If you're blaming workers, your analysis is way off.

“The conversation is changing” aka an shallow wokeness is the new Bilbao effect.

@ davvid Concept and funding for high line was put together by a non-profit group. Developers had nothing to do with it, and only capitalized on it with massive construction projects that completely altered the adjacent area after the fact. Developers don't apologize for anything and only provide required quasi-public amenites with the greatest reluctance, minimal expense, and greatest propensity to be perceived as private.

oh davvid, even marx understood that while owners are to blame for most of the misery of workers, those very workers are actors that have a thing called agency.

you might want to stick to ooo etc.

What does Coke, Disney, Greenwashing, and Wokeitectire have in common, anyone, anyone?

Night shot, closer to Starry Night

Statement: “There is one driving-metaphor for Luma Arles: that of a living organism. As such the balance between form and function will determine its viability. The trick is to compose a polyphonic score where everything is ordered, but where everything is possible”.

from the Luma site , Maja Hoffmann

The building will never look the same but change with different times, different seasons, with shifts in weather. And it will have different degrees of presence/absence.

I do love how the facade plays with light and reflection, only really hate that poop deck in the rear...

Bit of a Bilbao thinking on the municipality side of things. Other than that, Gehry does what Gehry does.

I just took a virtual tour of Arles. Really, in the old part, a charming town, quite walkable, quite attractive, quite human, on a human scale. But as you move away from the center, out towards Luma, the landscape turns banal and all too familiar.

A few blocks away. You have to assume the trend will continue, unless checked. Arles will keep growing, and it will grow out.

The Luma center + Gehry may well set the tone for future development, for the better, saving the area from the dismal bottom line. Forward thinking—now was the time to get in.

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Après la création de LUMA Foundation en 2004 dédiée au soutien de la création artistique contemporaine, Maja Hoffmann lance en 2013 le projet LUMA Arles sur le Parc des Ateliers. Ce campus créatif offre aux artistes de nouvelles perspectives de création, de collaboration et de présentation de leur travail au public.

Chiffres clés du projet LUMA

• 2004 : création de la LUMA Foundation à Zurich, Suisse
• 2013 : lancement du projet LUMA Arles au Parc des Ateliers, un site de 11 hectares.
• 2014-2021 : travaux de rénovation des bâtiments industriels par Selldorf Architects
• 2014-2021 : construction de La Tour par Frank Gehry
• 2017-2021 : création du parc paysager par Bas Smets

LUMA Foundation, Zurich

LUMA Foundation a été créée en 2004 par Maja Hoffmann à Zurich, en Suisse, afin de soutenir la création artistique dans les domaines des arts visuels, de la photographie, de l’édition, des films documentaires et du multimédia.

Considérée comme un outil de production pour les multiples initiatives lancées par Maja Hoffmann, LUMA Foundation produit, soutient et finance des projets artistiques qui visent à approfondir la compréhension des questions liées à l’environnement, aux droits de l’homme, à l’éducation et à la culture.

LUMA Arles au Parc des Ateliers

« S’il y a une image, une métaphore pour cette institution du 21 ᵉ  siècle, c’est celle d’un organisme vivant. Là où la question n’est plus de savoir si les espaces sont ouverts ou fermés mais sur quel mode ils fonctionnent à l’instant présent : là où toujours, quelque part, quelque chose se passe. Un archipel biologique … » Maja Hoffmann

En 2013, Maja Hoffmann lance  LUMA Arles , un campus créatif interdisciplinaire où à travers des expositions, des conférences, du spectacle vivant, de l’architecture et du design, des penseurs, artistes, chercheurs, scientifiques, interrogent les relations qu’entretiennent art, culture, environnement, droits humains et recherche.

À la fois lieu de production et d’expérimentation pour les artistes comme pour le grand public, LUMA Arles accueille chaque année des expositions d’artistes majeurs, des œuvres de grandes figures de la création contemporaine, des commandes spécifiques et des projets in-situ . Des archives d’artistes, de photographes ou d’expositions, sont accessibles dans des conditions dignes des plus grandes institutions internationales.

Sous le pilotage de Maja Hoffmann, le programme artistique de LUMA Arles a été supervisé de 2010 à 2018 par le Core Group de LUMA Arles, composé de commissaires d’exposition, de directeurs de musées et d’artistes. Il est composé de : Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno et Beatrix Ruf. Avec Hans-Ulrich Obrist et Tom Eccles dans le rôle non-exécutif de co-directeurs artistiques, le Core Group fut élargi en 2019 pour inclure Sophia Al Maria, Ian Cheng et Paul B. Preciado afin de discuter des programmes futurs. Ces conseillers internationaux sont soutenus par Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, directeur des expositions et des programmes de LUMA Arles.

Depuis sa création, LUMA Arles a commandité et présenté le travail de plus de 100 artistes, penseur·euse·s et innovateur·rice·s dans de multiples lieux de la cité arlésienne.

Le projet LUMA par Maja Hoffmann

Le parc des ateliers.

Le Parc des Ateliers est une ancienne friche ferroviaire d’une superficie de 11 hectares. Sur ce site, dialoguent dans une parfaite harmonie La Tour conçue par Frank Gehry et sept anciennes usines issues du patrimoine industriel du XIXᵉ siècle.

LUMA Arles se situe sur le Parc des Ateliers , un site exploité à l'origine par la compagnie Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) qui deviendra en 1938 la SNCF.

L’implantation de ce campus créatif au Parc des Ateliers a nécessité un réaménagement et une transformation des espaces afin d’obtenir un maximum de flexibilité pour la recherche et la production artistique.

La rénovation de plusieurs bâtiments industriels du Parc des Ateliers a été confiée à Selldorf Architects. Ainsi Les Forges , La Cour des Forges, La Mécanique Générale , La Formation et Le Médico-Social sont aujourd’hui destinés à différents usages tels que recevoir des expositions, des présentations ou encore accueillir les résidences d’artistes.

La Grande Halle rénovée en 2007 sous l’impulsion de la région PACA n’a pas fait l’objet d’autre rénovation et abrite aujourd’hui des espaces d’expositions.

La Tour dessinée par Frank Gehry vient compléter ces espaces et offre de nouvelles perspectives concernant la programmation artistique du lieu.

Les jardins , le parc et l’étang qui entourent le campus sont l’œuvre de l’architecte de paysages Bas Smets. Conçu comme un voyage à travers la région par la faune et la flore qui l’habitent, le parc de 4 hectares est un lieu de vie, d’échanges et de loisirs ouvert à tous. Au fil des déambulations, des œuvres, des sculptures ou des installations se dévoilent, prolongeant la découverte.  

Le parc paysager

La Grande Halle

La Mécanique Générale

La Formation

Le Magasin Électrique

Le Réfectoire

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