ABSTRACT
This chapter works as a continuation of the previous one, by linking and examining as a case study the collaboration of the architect Frank O. Gehry with the sculptor and artist Claes Oldenburg and Cousje van Bruggen. The work that will be examined, as a second case study of this book, is their collaborative project for the Chiat Day Building/Binoculars in Venice California in the United States of America, built during the period 1985–1991. The building, with the Binoculars as one of the components of the main entrance and façade of the architectural structure, marks one of their collaborations. The case study approaches the building and its Binoculars element of the façade, as a combination of architecture and colossal sculpture, as a building in its totality and also as a structure marked from the appearance of a colossal design object. The study will focus, as part of the theme of this book, on the relation of the human body and architectural structures, through the approach of two disciplines (architecture and sculpture) and how, from their structure, the creators combined the architectural and artistic perspective of the human body and anthropomorphic forms, with a reference to Oldenburg’s background on his works during the late 60s and the 80s; in particular his Buildings in the Form of Binoculars, Pelvic Region Characters (1969) and also the Design for a Theatre Library in Venice (1984).
