Swedish photographer Johan Dehlin visited five lesser-known residential buildings by Frank Gehry, which were built in the 1970s and early 1980s. His photographs have now been published in a book by Walther König.
Text: Wolfgang Bachmann
Norton House, photo: Johan Dehlin
For enthusiasts
The first question that comes to mind is: why is this book being published now, when deconstructivism and postmodernism are no longer topics of conversation among architectural pundits? One could reply that books have also been published about Mies, Schinkel and Palladio, long after these architects had passed away. Moreover, there is no harm in unexpectedly being reminded of a chapter of cultural history, especially since this publication is characterised by its bibliophile idiosyncrasy. After all, practitioners of architecture will have little use for it. It is a book for architecture enthusiasts.
Benson House, photo: Johan Dehlin
Pretty drawings
After two introductory texts, the five houses are presented with pretty, delicate drawings on a scale of 1:250 and plenty of white space. There is no reading aid, so you have to look very closely to reconstruct a spatial impression from the collection of isolated views, sections and floor plans. Or you can simply regard them as enigmatic vignettes related to this beautiful profession.
Indiana Avenue House, photo: Johan Dehlin
Photographic tour
The main part of the book consists of a series of photographs. This sets the stage for an entertaining guessing game, as you flip back and forth through the pages, trying to match the drawings and photographs in search of answers. Perhaps this suits Gehry: it is simply a collection of architecture, compiled in a very aesthetic way between the covers of the book. Sometimes a person has walked into the picture, and no special tidying up has been done for the photographer. Instead, knotted extension cables, for example, involuntarily take on the function of ornaments. This, too, can be seen as a continuation of Gehry's cheapskate aesthetics. The images almost look like private visitor photos, or as if the rooms had agreed on how they wanted to be presented when the camera lens approached them: matter-of-fact, like large still lifes in which only the Californian sun is allowed to play a part. At least the houses are now in good condition (we still remember them with their early signs of ageing at the end of the 1980s) and are being preserved as irreplaceable monuments; only the wood has become a little blacker over the years.
Indiana Avenue House, photo: Johan Dehlin
Frankie Toronto
Hilary Sample's text follows its own rules. The author lists the architect's works one after the other, interspersing them with details about materials, constructions and colours. This could be considered concrete poetry, and it might help if an experienced speaker recited the chapter rhythmically. It could then be a helpful reference to Gehry's working method. Tom Emerson then goes on to discuss this. He sees this architect not as an exalted artist, but as a practitioner who paraphrases the excitement of Los Angeles in his designs, intuitively domesticating the everyday. The hand-held circular saw for his popular timber frame and plywood buildings serves as a creative instrument. Climate-friendly architecture in particular could cope with the unconventional aesthetics of ‘Frankie Toronto’ (Gehry comes from Canada) in the context of preservation and redevelopment – as if the architect had anticipated and created a blueprint for low-energy houses.
Norton House, photo: Johan Dehlin
Across the continents
The texts follow American etymology; some idioms and acronyms are not familiar to us from our school English. So when BS is mentioned as one of the unmistakable hallmarks of Gehry's architecture, it does not refer to British Standards, but to ‘bullshit’. One would not have expected that the Pritzker Prize winner (1989), whom the New York Times described as ‘the most acclaimed American architect since Frank Lloyd Wright’, could be accused of building something that looks like ‘rubbish’.
In an interview, Gehry (*1929) once remarked amusedly that ‘the German psyche needs more rules than others’. In this respect, this late publication is not unnecessary; it invites us to engage with architecture on the basis of five buildings.
Johan Dehlin, Five Buildings by Frank Gehry, English, 188 pages, Verlag Walther König, Köln 2025, ISBN 978-3-7533-0589-9
