Fondation Louis Vuitton

The Fondation Louis Vuitton is a museum in Paris designed by the renowned Frank Gehry, its structure has glass taking the form of a sailboat sails inflated by the wind, these sails envelop the “iceberg”, a series of shapes with white flowery terraces.

Fondation Louis Vuitton Project Details:

The design included sails made of 3,600 glass panels, each unique and specifically curved to fit the shapes designed by the architect. The two-story structure has 11 galleries of different sizes (in total 41,441 square feet), a voluminous 350-seat auditorium on the lower-ground floor and multilevel roof terraces for events and art installations The teams participating in the construction of this iconic building have won several awards in France and the US.

DBM Vircon’s Scope of Work:

Working with Eiffrage Construction, DBM Vircon’s scope was primarily 3D modeling and detailing the structural steelwork and the laminated beams. The project’s design was delivered through model exchange to and from the Digital Projects 3D design software into the Tekla Structures software that we used on this project. The complex geometry required us to also provide interface to the thousands of faceted glazing panels that created the many sails that give this project its iconic appearance.