A glass cloud? A floating sailboat? A smashed perfume bottle?
Nope, it’s the new Fondation Louis Vuitton recently opened in the Jardin d’acclimatation in the Bois de Bologne in the west of Paris. The merging of two visions between LVMH’s CEO, Bernard Arnault and Frank Gehry the controversial Canadian-American architect-extraordinaire. I headed there on a very grey Parisian day with my youngest strapped into his pram. There is no doubt when you arrive at the entrance that this building is special. It is ginormous in size and the shiny Louis Vuitton Logo stands out like a diamond encrusted brooch on the entrance lapel . From the publicity photos the building seems as if it’s floating like a glass cloud above the park and has in fact been described as a “cloud of glass – magical, ephemeral, all transparent” by Mr Gehry himself in a 2006 interview with the Guardian . But as I stood outside admiring it’s size I didn’t get a sense of anything light – the gallery is imposing, grand, powerful and dominant – which is perhaps a reflection of the luxury conglomerate itself. …