I just felt that it should be a material like in the neighbourhood. These fluid shapes appear similar to those of Frank Gehry’s previous buildings, like the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Guggenheim Bilbao, but here they have been created using 320,000 custom-designed bricks that had to be laid by hand. «I made some shiny metal models but they were things I had already sort of worked over and done. The architect told newspaper The Australian that the choice of materials was a response to the local context. If I’d built it in metal it would have been fine too, but I think the metal would have cost more.»
The Canadian-born architect said he was inspired by the way that artists use folds to explore colour, form and shadow. The Dr Chau Chak Wing building is named after an Australian-Chinese benefactor who has donated £13.9 million to UTS. Photography is by Peter Bennetts. «I think when the university hired me they expected a shiny metal building,» he said. News: Frank Gehry has completed his first building in Australia – the Dr Chau Chak Wing building at Sydney’s University of Technology, set to open in early 2015 (photos by Peter Bennetts).