990. Frank Gehry, Experience Music Project,

Seattle, Washington, 1999-2000 (U.S.A.)

Devoted to the history of rock music, this museum was established in Jimi Hendrix’s hometown by Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. The anarchic and populist nature of its theme clearly inspired Gehry to come up with one of his most outrageous and uninhibited designs. Here his architectural forms are extraordinarily dynamic and flexible, and the building’s free-form envelope seems more like a pile of multicoloured cloth blowing in the wind than a solid structure; Gehry was particularly inspired by the shapes and colours of Stratocaster guitars. The EMP’s complex curves are animated by a rainbow of dazzling and unexpected colours, including gold, silver, dark red, baby blue and a shimmering ‘purple haze’. The interior, formed from a giant steel frame of wildly irregular profile, is appropriately dark and cave-like, suitable for dramatic lighting effects suggestive of a rock concert. A central room known as the “sky church” features 21-metre tall video screens showing performances by Hendrix and others. Never a clear-cut critical or financial success, the building now also houses a science fiction hall of fame.