The spectacular new building of the Luma Foundation in Arles is a work of art for art.

The spectacular new building of the Luma Arles Foundation is a work of art for art: Frank Gehry’s tower is both a museum and a studio building. It is the highlight of an art and cultural area that Luma founder Maja Hoffmann has realized over the course of 15 years.

Arles and art – the first thing that comes to mind is, of course, van Gogh, who sought to realize his dream of a studio in the south in an artistic partnership with Gauguin. However, his stay in Arles turned into a debacle for van Gogh. Not only did his collaboration with Gauguin end in a rift – in Arles he also began to suffer increasingly from delusions, until he finally had to go to the mental hospital in nearby Saint-Rémy.

It almost seems as if Maja Hoffmann had set out to heal van Gogh’s fate in Arles in retrospect. Hoffmann, who comes from the Basel industrialist dynasty of the same name, is one of the world’s most important art collectors and patrons. She has been a cultural initiator and patron of the arts in Arles for almost 20 years. In 2004, she founded the Luma Foundation there, which promotes and commissions contemporary art.

Three years later, Maja Hoffmann began a working process together with the architect Frank Gehry, the curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist and a number of important contemporary artists. Together, they developed ideas for a new type of art and cultural center for the 21st century. Hoffmann chose the “Parc des Ateliers” as the location for this project. This is the site of the SNCF railroad depot on the edge of the historic old town of Arles, which has been abandoned since the 1980s. The historic workshop buildings have been renovated in recent years by architect Annabelle Selldorf. The building now houses exhibition spaces, artists’ studios and apartments as well as a restaurant.

The redesign of the “Parc des Ateliers” has now been crowned with the opening of the “Tower”, a 56-metre-high exhibition and studio building designed by Frank Gehry. The initial preparatory work for the project began back in 2009 and construction work began in 2013. The result is unmistakably the work of Gehry – who, however, combines the free forms so characteristic of his work with enormous geometric volumes. The architect designed a three-storey high plinth zone as a huge glass cylinder. A reference to the Roman amphitheater in Arles.

The actual tower rises from the cylinder. Its side facing the city center presents itself as a shiny and wildly moving metal skin with rectangular window cores. On the side facing away from the city, on the other hand, the tower appears to be composed of two cubic bodies that stand next to each other at a slight angle. Inside the glass cylinder, the volumes of the various galleries appear to be freely distributed throughout the space. This form of organization is similar to that found in Gehry’s Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. There are also several studio spaces for artists here. The tower, on the other hand, mainly houses the foundation’s administrative offices. A public viewing terrace forms the upper end.

Numerous works of art, including those by Philippe Parreno and Olafur Eliasson, are an important part of the tower. They were created especially for this location. Incidentally, Atelier Luma is also part of the Luma Foundation’s work. This workshop has developed various sustainable building and furnishing elements made from local materials for the project: the building features textile wall coverings made from bioplastics, tiles dyed with algae and acoustic elements made from sunflowers.

You can see another museum adorned with successful architectural details here.

Callwey-Verlag and Baumeister are conquering a new medium: our architectural expertise will also be available as an architecture podcast from September 18.

Callwey-Verlag and Baumeister are conquering a new medium: our architectural and journalistic expertise will also be available as a podcast from September 18. Two different formats are dedicated to architecture-related topics and interesting interview partners. In the first episode, Isa Fahrenholz and Vanessa Kanz talk to the artists from super+. What does the studio have to do with the Oktoberfest Wiesn? Listen for yourself.

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So far, Baumeister has mainly been a feast for the eyes: opinionated reviews, wide-ranging interviews, an unmistakable layout and striking images. This will change from September 18. Then Baumeister’s architectural expertise will also be available for the ears. This is because we are launching our own architecture podcasts as part of our young architects’ network NxtA.

Alexander Gutzmer, Editor-in-Chief of Baumeister, sees this as a great opportunity: “The world of communication is becoming increasingly digital – including in the field of architecture. The podcasts give us the opportunity to express ourselves creatively in a new format. And our content also reaches an audience that architecture criticism in the traditional format may no longer appeal to.”

Two formats give us the opportunity to bring different content closer to you. On the one hand, there is NxtA Position: the architecture essay. In it, journalists from the Baumeister environment take a stand on topics relevant to architecture.

The second format is called NxtA Dialog: the architecture talk. Our editors talk to interesting personalities from the architecture scene, but also from the world of art and culture. We want to introduce them to you and let you take part in the conversations we have with them.

super+ and the Oktoberfest

It all starts on September 18. The first NxtA Dialog: Our employees Isa Fahrenholz and Vanessa Kanz talk to the artists of the Munich studio super+. The studio will be taking part in this year’s Oktoberfest under the name “Zunft für die Künstler” with its own float in the Oktoberfest parade.

Conclusion: On the way to work, while cooking, on a walk or with a glass of wine: soon you will be able to enjoy architectural input from our studio when it suits you best. You can find the podcast on the Baumeister website and on all popular podcast platforms: Spotify, iTunes, Soundcloud.

We developed the podcasts as part of our initiative NXT A – the young architects’ network . Find out more about NXT A on our channels soon.

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