Luma Arles’s twisting, geometric tower by Canadian starchitect Frank Gehry will open on 26 June 2021 – the centrepiece of the city’s new 27-acre culture campus.

Around 11,000 stainless steel panels cover the exterior of the Arles tower. Its crumpled form will house galleries, classrooms, an auditorium and research and archive facilities for the Luma Arles arts centre, founded by the Swiss pharmaceutical heiress and art collector Maja Hoffmann.

‘We wanted to evoke the local, from Van Gogh’s Starry Night to the soaring rock clusters you find in the region,’ said Gehry of the glittering 56-metre-high tower.

The Los Angeles-based Pritzker Prize-winning architect celebrated his 92nd birthday in February and has been called ‘the most important architect of our age’ by Vanity Fair.

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