The 'Bilbao Effect' in Abu Dhabi
René Ammann | 14. December 2025
The world’s largest Guggenheim museum is expected to open in 2026 in Abu Dhabi's Al Saadiyat cultural district. (Photo: Gehry Partners, LLP; via Guggenheim Museum Abu Dhabi)
Approximate area of the Guggenheim Museum Abu Dhabi, designed by the late Canadian-American architect Frank O. Gehry, announced in 2006 but not expected to be completed until 2026 after a series of delays, and consisting of “eleven conical structures contrasted with monolithic volumes [creating] a complex and vaguely disorienting composition”: 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet)