1995
The building of the National Dutch Representative Office in the Czech Republic (Prague office, 1995) bears the name “Ginger and Fred” (names of popular American dancers). It is based on reinforced concrete structures with 99 different façade panels. Two towers, rounded in cross-section, with a double curvature resembling a dancing couple, form the corner of a nine-story building. At the top of the Dance House there is a dome called “Medusa” because of its shape. The building has 9 floors and the rooms are asymmetrical. The house reaches the line of the street onto the sidewalk. Window openings knocked down from the horizontal. The image of the building is emphatically grotesque, the volumes are curvilinear and fluid. Here, the opposition of differences is obvious: American and European culture, feminine and masculine, fragile and massive. Contrasts and dynamics are Gehry’s favorite motives. He used them to express the idea of eccentric movement.