Frank Gehry will also have his museum on the German Rhine, like his colleagues Meier, Stirling and Hollein. The Vitra museum is the product of his relationship with furniture designers and builders, and also of his contacts with that pop art whose vitality slides through the work of the architect from Los Angeles. A prestigious space to exhibit and exalt the tradition of modern design - between rational and surreal - of the chair, placed in front of the offices of the factory and that welcomes the recent history in the collection of pieces gathered by Vitra.

The relationship between Gehry's work and that of his admired friend Claes Oldenburg has a turning point here. The use of the curved surface with strong overhangs, in random volumes, is strangely reminiscent of Oldenburg's famous sculptures of the white and soft series, of those soft washbasins and bathtubs where the smooth, glazed surface melted before our eyes, submerging the hard elements - taps and pipes - like ice cream to waffles. The last Gehry built suddenly resembles the Oldenburg of years ago, rather than the hard and smooth Oldenburg whose display - hammer, screwdriver and pliers - presides over the museum lawn...[+]