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Guggenheim's glass atrium sets the scene for a unique art experience

In the year following its official opening in October 1997, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain had already received more than a million visitors – and its stunning architecture had scooped innumerable headlines in the world's press.

An apparition of glass, half-shiny titanium and limestone, the museum contains some of the world's finest examples of twentieth-century art. It is owned by the Basque administration and managed jointly by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Foundation and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum provides a cultural landmark for the Basque country in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York City while successfully integrating its industrial waterfront with Bilbao's historic and business districts.

Frank Gehry's breathtaking design for the Guggenheim was selected by a jury in an international competition held in 1991. The architecture successfully creates a museum conducive to the exhibition of large-scale modern and contemporary art exhibits. It consists of a series of interconnected buildings, clad in limestone or titanium, which have as their central focus an impressive, 50-meter high atrium of laminated glass; facing the river.

Central glass atrium

The Guggenheim's soaring glass atrium is used to show off exhibits like Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's 'Soft Shuttlecock' to dramatic effect.

The central atrium recalls the work of Gaudi with its poetic spaces and inventive sculptural forms. Flooded with light from glazed openings in the sculptural, 'Metallic Flower' roof, it serves as the main arrival and orientation point for the museum as well as a stage for monumental site-specific installations and for functions such as parties. Three levels of galleries are organized around the atrium which is one-and-a half times the height of the rotunda in the New York Guggenheim Museum. Sinuous cascades of laminated glass also screen the staircase and the elevator bank. On the winding walkways of the upper floors of the museum, large expanses of corridor window give dramatic vistas of the city.

Associate Principal at Frank O. Gehry and Associates Inc. and Project Manager for the Guggenheim, Vano Haritunians, told Laminated Glass News: "We wanted to bring the maximum of light into the atrium and for the light to spill into the galleries. Since we were using large areas of glass in both horizontal and vertical applications, laminated glass was specified for safety reasons, just as it would have been specified throughout Europe and the USA".

"Technically, we were able to achieve the fluid and undulating form that makes up the building's exterior without using curved glass. Instead, we used a specially-developed software program called Catia to control automated cutting machines that produced 2,600 triangular, laminated glass panels of 2,300 various sizes. The end result is very smooth and undulating – it does not look segmented."

The feeling of openness that the atrium creates links the contemporary exhibits of the interior with the Basque countryside.

The atrium is flooded with light from glazed openings in the sculptural roof.

Ramon Eguido, Sales Manager of Reflective Glass Products at Guardian Glass Espana, explained: "As well as achieving effective light transmission and fulfilling safety requirements, the architects specified that the 5,600 m² of glass used in the museum should give optimal thermal and acoustic insulation, with maximum UV protection of the artwork. With these specifications in mind, nothing could replace laminated glass."

The architects specified an insulated glass unit construction of 6mm heat strengthened glass with a Low-E coating on the exterior for solar control, followed by a cavity of 12mm and a laminated layer of 5mm annealed glass/0.76mm PVB/5mm annealed glass. For lower level glass panels, an interlayer of 1.5MM PVB was used for security reasons.

As the External Affairs Manager of the Guggenheim Museum Bilboa, Mikel Echaguibel, proudly summed up: "The atrium defines the mood of the museum as soon as you walk in. What's so nice is that the light, and therefore the mood is constantly changing, depending on the weather and time of day. The feeling of openness that the atrium creates links the contemporary exhibits of the interior with the Basque countryside and community outside which supports us. I don't think there's anything else quite like our atrium in Europe!"