The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of contemporary art designed by the Canadian architect Frank O. Gehry and located in the town of Bilbao, Spain. It is one of the museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. It was inaugurated on October 18, 1997 by King Juan Carlos I of Spain.
The most striking feature of the museum is the innovative building in which it is located, consisting of curvilinear and twisted shapes, covered with limestone, glass curtains and titanium plates. It has a total area of 24,000 m², of which 10,540 m² are reserved for exhibitions, distributed in 19 galleries. It is located on the banks of the estuary of Bilbao, in an area called Abandoibarra, next to the bridge of La Salve, which is surrounded by a hollow tower.
Frank Gehry received the order for this museum shortly after his Walt Disney Auditorium project was canceled when it was still just an idea. This fact inspired the Guggenheim Museum in its designed auditorium, sharing both projects a very similar approach. The soft forms present in the museum begin with the Vitra Museum and evolved into other works. Gehry made dozens of models where he tested the possible shapes of the building.
