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members by showing Gehry's Los Angeles Concert Hall seen
on the cover of Concert Hall Weekly where it says: "So Good It's
Gehry!"iVlarge convinces the committee to fund a new concert
hall, designed by Frank Gehry. Sofarİtisstrangelyfamiİiar,asall
the architect audience here would know, Simpsons illustrates
'the Bilbao effect', a phenomenon entered into contemporary
language ofarchitectural discourses afterGehry's Guggenheim
Museum In Bilbao, Spain. The museum changed Bilbao, the
former industrial city in economic decline, into one of the
most popular destinations in Europe; virtually overnight. The
Simpsons episode highlights the municipalities' attempts
to get a Bilbao-esque architectural wonder in their cities to
draw in visitors. Here, the city Is Springfield; the architect is, of
course, Frank Gehry.
Here comes the new concept of'Starchitect'or'Stararchitect',
although giving celebrity status to architects is nothing new
since Renaissance. However, since the popular success of the
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the media started to talk
abouttheso-called'Bilbaoeffect'and a star architect designing
a prestige building was thought to be the solution to produce
a landmark for the city. I would like to cut short this discussion
of starchitect, and'Bilbao effect'in an attempt not to reiterate
what is known in current architectural narratives. And yet. It
Is clearly seen that the Simpsons episode offers a relevant
architectural commentary of the last decade, touching on
issues like'starchitect', and'Bilbao effect'.
I am a genius!
Returning to the episode, we see how Frank Gehry gets his
inspiration from a crumpled-up letter on the sidewalk. We
should not forget that it is a highly satirical parody. And yet, it
depicts his empirical design method, which famously begins
at the very low-tech level of crumpled paper models and
assemblages of found objects. Playfulness has been particular
apparent In Gehry's oeuvre since the 70s. The consequences
of this formal playfulness can best be observed, in the
transformation of the architectural design process into a kind
of game. Anthony VIdier (1992, p.102) explained the dilemma
of the notion of play In its resemblance to Alice's playing
croquet with the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland: 'She
knew what the game was called, but there did not seem to be
any fixed rule and to complicate matters the equipment was
in continuous and random movement. From the flamingo-
mallets to the hedge-hog-balls and the soldier hoops,
everything was open to chance, deprived of the security of the
articulated moves and their known consequences' Similarly, in
Gehry's game, there seems to be no apparent rule. The formal
implications of a design process informed by the aesthetic of
playfulness are also demonstrated in Springfield Concert Hall,
as in other Gehry buildings.
The "bestest" architect in the world!
The impact of technology on architecture Is not new and 1 have
no intention of examining these issues in this paper. What I want
to stress briefly, though, is the duality between construction and
appearance, a crucial theme for today's architectural narratives.
This duality can also been detected In the Simpsons'episode.
Kolorevic {2005, p.n7) asserted that, 'in the new digitally-
driven processes of production, design and construction are no
longer separate realms but are, instead fluidly amalgamated.'
In the episode we see Gehry at the construction site with his
helmet on. Cranes start swinging wrecking balls to knock and
beat the structure into the shape of a typical Gehry building.
He gives his thumbs-up once the final form is achieved. It does
not look like a digitally driven but a crane driven process, design
and construction are done at the same time, amalgamated
in a satirical way. It looks also as if it is very easy to build the
Springfield Concert Hall. And later when the building turns
into ruins, the mayor asks the town, 'Why did you tell that you
did not like classical music?'They reply:'we did not have time,
everything happened so quickly.'This dialog İsa parody of what
happened in the construction of the Concert Hall in Los Angeles,
which took 15 years to finish the construction.
Mr. Burns'budget
Looking at Gehry's architecture, what one sees is the display
of extravaganza, Impetuousness, and technological virtuosity.
But, there is another thing that exists behind the glossy surface,
the unlimited budget of the cWent.lWis raises a number of critical
issues. Perhaps the most obvious of these is that signature
architecture requires rich clients who are able to afford it, such
as Lillian Disney, the widow of Walt Disney, or Paul Allen, the
co-founder of Microsoft, or the Guggenheim family, to mention
only a few. Similarly, rich clients seem to preferGehry's work, as