Refik Anadol generates a tribute to Frank Gehry

Guggenheim Bilbao recently opened the first of its in situ series of site-specific installations with Refik Anadol's Living Architecture: Gehry, a sprawling audiovisual installation that presents a generative interpretation of Frank Gehry's decades-long architectural legacy. The museum, where the installation is being showcased in the cavernous exhibition space of Room 208, was designed by the world-renowned Canadian-American architect in 1997.

Curated by Lekha Hileman Waitoller, Living Architecture: Gehry embodies the aspirations and dreams of generations of pioneering architects, whose artistic vision inspired Gehry's own innovative designs. Anadol relied upon archival data supplied to him by the architect himself to expand upon the dreams of the past. By combining the aforementioned data and a mass of ethically-accessed open source architectural images with his own large nature model, Anadol formed a new large architecture model capable of generating unique variations on Gehry's designs.

In Anadol's conception, the installation is divided into six interconnected chapters which follow a procedural and narrative sequence. Archival photographs, plans and structural documents are compiled in a memory space, which is subsequently processed. The resulting forms transition into an immersive visual environment, where visitors can interact with the data in a collaborative manner. After passing through this distillation process, the AI model molds the data, outputting astonishing Gehry-esque architectural designs. These are then sifted through another AI model that breaks spatial constraints, inducing a hallucinatory vision, before returning to the realm of architecture, where the AI's “imagination” playfully transforms the designs in real time, creating a flickering, effervescent tapestry of new forms.

The installation is accompanied by a soundscape composed by Kerim Karaoğlu, consisting of sounds gathered from inside and outside the museum, and from across Bilbao. An AI-generated scent is likewise released into the exhibition space, complementing the whole ensemble and providing a multisensory experience.

Refik Anadol's Living Architecture: Gehry is open at the Guggenheim Bilbao through October 19, 2025. For more about this exhibition and other events at the museum, visit the site.