Heritage Bilbao’s titanium transformation Ever since Diego López de Haro founded the the Golden Fish sculpture in Barcelona and Inside the museum, three town of Bilbao on 15 June 1300, the capital of the Marqués de Riscal Hotel in La Rioja. The floors are connected by curved Vizcaya has been the working-class pride of Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao is an walkways arranged around a central atrium. The permanent northern Spain, a city synonymous with smoke, architectural masterpiece due to its innovative collection of the Guggenheim iron and shipyards. Until the 1990s, no one on design and construction. Located on the site of Museum Bilbao features more the banks of the River Nervión discussed art, an old port and industria wr on a ben indlhaf than 130 works by 81 artists design, or architecture. That was until a project the river, the project covers an area of 24,000 and features leading figures came along that would completely change the square metres. The building is also distinctive in Basque art. city. In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao because of the materials used, as Gehry chose opened its doors, and today it is an emblem of 33,000 thin sheets of titanium for the museum’s the city’s skyline,transformining t i termsof tsi outer skin, in addition to limestone and glass. culture, tourism and ecology. The complexity of the curved shapes designed The international network of Guggenheim by the architect required the implementation art museums is characterised not only by its of advanced technology, which until then had cultural and artistic wealth, but also by the only been used in the aerospace industry. iconic buildings that house it. Canadian archi- The impact the opening of the Guggenheim tect Frank Gehry was commissioned to design Museum has had demonstrates how a cultural the museum in Bilbao, having also designed project can change a city. 114