Luma Arles building by Frank Gehry, Southern France creative campus design, New French iconic architecture images

Luma Arles building by architect Frank Gehry

Iconic Architectural Development in Southern France design by Frank Gehry architect, L.A., USA

post updated 30 March 2024

Design: Architect Frank Gehry, Gehry & Partners, Santa Monica, CA, USA

photo © Hervé Hôte

Location: Parc des Ateliers, 33 avenue Victor Hugo, Arles, southern France

25 June 2021

Luma Arles building by Frank Gehry

photograph © Adrian Deweerdt

Spectacular Frank Gehry Building Opens As Luma Arles Unveils 27-acre Creative Campus

LUMA Arles, a 27-acre creative campus at the Parc des Ateliers in the city of Arles, opens to the public tomorrow, Saturday 26 June 2021. Work by over 45 artists and designers will feature in the opening programme, with special new commissions for LUMA by major international artists, including Etel Adnan, Ólafur Elíasson, Koo Jeong A, Kapwani Kiwanga, Helen Marten, Pierre Huyghe, Carsten Höller, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija amongst others.

photo © Adrian Deweerdt

Major new outdoor artworks include a previously unseen 13-metre-high pink sculpture by Franz West and a full-scale glow in the dark skatepark by Koo Jeong A, which is illuminated at night with fluorescent paint. Carsten Höller’s Seven Sliding Doors Corridor, a mirrored and seemingly endless passage which visitors can explore, has been reimagined and installed across the site’s pond, whilst Kerstin Brätsch has created a site-specific mosaic floor for the Café du Parc.

The Tower features several artist commissions throughout its 12 levels. Philippe Parreno has created Danny, a new permanent immersive artwork using algorithmic technology, a unique ceramic wall mural by Etel Adnan covers the entire back wall of the auditorium, and a new site-specific iteration of Ólafur Elíasson’sTake your Time, a circular rotating mirror affixed to the ceiling, is installed above the monumental, double-helix staircase.

photo © Adrian Deweerdt

Carsten Höller has installed a new iteration of his renowned experimental artwork Isometric Slides in The Tower, which act as one of the building’s means of transporting visitors, and Christian Marclay’s The Clock, a 24-hour video montage exploring the perception of time, will be shown throughout the summer.

photo © Adrian Deweerdt

Also presented in The Tower, The Impermanent Display is a new exhibition of artworks from the LUMA Foundation / Maja Hoffmann collection, including Rirkrit Tiravanija, Arthur Jafa, Urs Fischer, Paul McCarthy, Precious Okoyomon, amongst others.

photo © Remi Benali

The exhibition Three Generations: Works from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation Collection will showcase artworks from one of the most extensive collections of European and Western avant-garde artists in the world, including works by Bruce Nauman, Richard Long, Duane Michals, Cy Twombly and Rosemarie Trockel. Exhibitions presented as part of the annual Rencontres d’Arles will also be on display at La Mécanique Générale.

photo © Remi Benali

A number of new exhibitions will open across the LUMA Arles campus. In La Grande Halle, Pierre Huyghe presents After UUmwelt, a new site-specific artwork which develops over the time of the exhibition. The commission follows on from his project UUmwelt at the Serpentine Gallery, London, in 2019 and marks Huyghe’s first large-scale commission in France following his retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2011.

photo © Remi Benali

In La Mécanique Générale, Prelude presents the work of four emerging contemporary artists: Sophia Al Maria, Kapwani Kiwanga, P.Staff and Jakob Kudsk Steensen. This highly immersive exhibition will feature new work in diverse media, including film and video, virtual reality, sculpture and sound.

photo © Remi Benali

Previously on e-architect:

19 Mar 2021

Luma Arles building by Frank Gehry architect in France

Design: Gehry & Partners, Santa Monica, CA, USA

Location: Parc des Ateliers, 33 avenue Victor Hugo, Arles, France

Luma Arles To Open On 26 June 2021

Spectacular new building by US architect Frank Gehry forms centrepiece of 27-acre creative campus

Luma Tower imagined by Frank Gehry, January 2021:

image © Adrian Deweerdt

The LUMA Foundation announces the opening of LUMA Arles on 26 June 2021*, a 27-acre creative campus at the Parc des Ateliers in the city of Arles bringing together artists and innovators of the future.

At its heart is Frank Gehry’s spectacular 15,000 square meters tower, a twisting geometric structure finished with 11,000 stainless steel panels. It will house exhibition galleries, project spaces and the LUMA’s research and archive facilities, alongside workshop and seminar rooms. 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.

Luma Tower imagined by Frank Gehry, January 2021:

image © Adrian Deweerdt

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. It is dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to experiment in the production of new work, in close collaboration with other artists from a variety of disciplines, with curators, and diverse audiences.

From 2008 to 2020, the development of this creative campus in Arles has been led by Maja Hoffmann working with a small dedicated team, and the collective input from a Core Group of advisers (Tom Eccles, Liam Gillick, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Philippe Parreno, and Beatrix Ruf). LUMA has already commissioned and presented the work of more than 100 artists and innovators at sites in Arles, including the ancient Roman amphitheatre, and the LUMA Arles campus.

Aerial view of the site, September 2020:

image © Herve-Hote

In July 2010, 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. Là où, toujours, quelque part quelque chose se passe.”

Alongside the construction and renovation works, the ongoing exhibitions and living archive programme, The Library is on Fire, Offprint, Atelier LUMA and LUMA Days, the residencies and the first steps to define the LUMA Winterschool, have been, over the past 10 years the continuation of this vision more relevant than ever in these times of planetary transition.

Describing his building, which will house seminar rooms, exhibition spaces, research facilities, an auditorium and a café, Frank Gehry said:
“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.”

Aerial view of the site, June 2019, Parc des Ateliers:

image © Dronimages

The city of Arles is located in the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur in the Mediterranean South of France, between two nature reserves, the Camargue wetlands and the mountain range of Les Alpilles. Arles became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981, incorporating its Roman and Romanesque lega- cy which includes the monumental Arles Amphitheatre, the Alyscamps and the antique theatre.

*The opening date is subject to the latest government guidelines in connection with Covid 19.

Luma Arles, Parc des Ateliers, 33 avenue Victor Hugo, 13200 Arles

www.luma-arles.org

Frank Gehry Architect

Musée de la Romanité in Nîmes images / information received from developer’s agency

Location: Arles, south of France

New Nîmes Buildings

New Montpellier Buildings

Leonard De Vinci High School in Montpellier

photograph © Hellin-Sebbag, photo Benoît Wehrlé
Leonard De Vinci High School in Montpellier

Campus of University Saint-Charles, Montpellier

photograph © Hellin-Sebbag, photo Benoît Wehrlé
Campus of University Saint-Charles

Logements Lez in Art dans la ZAC Rive Gauche à Montpellier
Design: NBJ Architectes

photograph © photoarchitecture.com
Logements Lez in Art dans la ZAC Rive Gauche à Montpellier

Sailing Cube – Pavilion du FAV 2014 à Montpellier
Design: Atelier Jérôme Lafond

photography © Paul KOZLOWSKI
Sailing Cube in La Grande Motte, Montpellier