Category: ARCH 505A: Graduate Architecture Design I

The exhibition hall mainly shows some strange and special stones. The whole is divided into upper and lower parts. The lower part is the circulation area for the staff, like workshop and offices, and the upper part is the gallery with a large glass shell which is separated by nine planes rotating 15 degrees.
Entering this exhibition, all the exhibits are handed over steps by steps, which can give people a forceful sense of impact.

My intention for this assignment was to implement a design in which each program component was defined by its own massing, with its own respective floor and ceiling thickness. An additional factor I wanted to play with was light, but more specifically shadow. I chose to incorporate diagonal mullions throughout each level oriented in opposite directions. I am imagining intricate shadows being casted on the interior, as the sun rotates around the building throughout the course of the day.

This project is based on the idea of the Orient the plans with north at 10:30 and the human movement of the surrounding environment to design a gallery with sloping angled floor plans. This kind of angle applied both in floor plans and skylights aim to maximize the natural light into space, and the interaction between interior and outside spaces. The interior spaces with angled elements emphasis different experience through spaces with different functions. The three levels of the project connected with two long staircases lead people to go through from more public spaces to more private spaces.

This project tries to maximize the fun of experience by using minimal lines. Due to the site’s orientation and urban context, it is essential to rotate and adjust the massing to adapt to the sunlight. The idea of “Folded Planes” inspired by OMA’s Educatorium redefines the concept of floor and ceiling, creating a better function organization and circulation. Different spaces are easy to distinguish and feel through the change of light and spatial organization. But the transition between them is obscure and natural since the “Folded” concept leads to a consistent spatial form.

The goal for this project was to create an art gallery that highlights the contrast between the surrounding urban fabric and natural outdoor greenery implemented on the site. This was achieved by creating a structure that had both linear edges and organic forms present, the use of outdoor gardens as circulation routes, and highly regulated views in order to capture natural elements as much as possible through the window openings. Other driving forces for this project were the opening to southern and western sun exposure to allow many gardens to flourish and the activation of the three surrounding sidewalks to engage the community and invite them in.

This project starts with the function blocks and the main circulation that is spiral leads the basic form. It also shows the different scale geometry with the boolean operation. About the openings, they use the same logic that creating void in the corner.