Although we did wander the streets a bit, our trip to Bilbao was mostly about seeing the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
The Guggenheim is a museum of modern and contemporary art designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial and located in Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The Guggenheim is one of several museums belonging to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The museum features permanent and visiting exhibits of works by Spanish and international artists.
The museum is constructed of a complex steel frame with sinuous stone, glass and titanium orthogonal and organic volumes. The titanium cladding used is half a millimeter thick, each piece is unique and has been designed with the aid of a state-of-the-art 3D design computer programme. The volumes are linked by glass curtain walls for light transparency. In some of the more curvacious and irregular exhibition spaces within the museum the floor is constructed of cement with curved and twisted walls. Before Gehry chose to use titanium sheathing, 29 different materials including stainless steel, copper and aluminium were considered for use.