Case Study

Dancing House, Prague
by Frank Gehry
1996




Vlado Milunic was asked to invite a world-renowned architect to building at the site after Dutch bank ING agreed to build a house there. Frank Gehry had accepted the invitation for the challenge and was provided with a budget which was almost unlimited as ING wanted to create an icon in Prague.
The construction took from 1994 to 1996. This house serves as an office building as well as hosts a French restaurant on the 7th floor with views over the Vltava River and Castle.
The building's unusual shape represents a woman and man dancing together, hence the nickname. It has been constructed from 99 differently shaped and dimension concrete panels thus requiringa unique wooden form.



Some thought that the building was a statement of liberation, freedom and democratic beliefs though even after decades some continued to hate the building. Though the buildings designed by Gehry may seem random, there is a logic to everything that he does; radically sculptured organic shapes that have pronounced visual gestures and forms. The figurative quality to the building is the sweeping curvy female figure attached to the male straight one that composes the two sections of the building.


" I believe that if any other architect or a student came up with this design, Frank Gehry himself would say it is a joke."

-abdel-moniem El-Shorbagy

Reference
Galinsky, Dancing House Prague by Frank Gehry, http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/dancinghouse/index.htm, [online], (accessed 7/10/10).

DeviantART, Dancing House of Prague, alierturk, http://alierturk.deviantart.com/art/Dancing-House-of-Prague-110134584, [online], (accessed 7/10/10).

Stop In Prague, Prague Blog - The Dancing House, http://www.stopin-prague.com/blog/dancing-house, [online], (accessed 7/10/10).

Berkshire Fine Arts, Frank Gehry's Dancing House in Prague, http://www.berkshirefinearts.com/?page=article&article_id=1095&catID=26, [online], (accessed 12/10/10).