Student: Michael Collard
Project: Contemporary Art Center, Rome, Italy

The Contemporary Art Center is located in Rome, Italy and is situated on a historic site. An open building in which one is aware of their surroundings was a essential aspect in the design. An integral component in the building are the 36 multi-functional tubes that puncture through the building. These tubes serve as a structural element, as well as providing natural ventilation and natural light to the surrounding spaces. The program encompasses every stage for the development of art. It has workshops and studios for the artist to create their masterpieces, residences in which artist may stay, and the various exhibition spaces to display the art.

The proposed building will be a modern sculpture museum in Chelsea New York. The future pedestrian Highline crosses the site in north to south direction. Besides exhibition spaces, the museum will also include a small auditorium, library, cafeteria, and offices. Because the space will display sculptures, the museum should be seen as one too, from both outside and inside. As a sculptural exhibit, the building will have attractive form that resonant and even advertises the interior programming. In gallery spaces one may concentrate and enjoy a sculpture piece, but in spaces such as circulation, the focus is broadened to the building form and its space. The basic form of the museum started with complex, inversely tapered cylinders, forming a double layered “8”, crossing each other. That logic is integrated with a grid system which follows the established linearity of the city block and highline. The system is represented by the linear floor plates, piercing through the cylinders, and by the facades, which are glazing held by beams and columns. The cylinder form bends to the rectilinear system accordingly, and at some point, the cylinder pushes out of the glazing façade, emphasizing tension between the curves and linear grid and the ability to morph. The resulting museum is controlled and dynamic. The main circulation system is spiral stairs that wraps around the cylinders form, connecting and passing through exhibition spaces. Each run of the stair rises about four feet vertically, which will allow most visitors to maintain visual connection between one level of stair to the next. The circulation itself is an important experience. It becomes a major part of the exhibition, integrated with form and space of the museum, and actual sculptural exhibitions, challenging the conventional formality of museum.