SURFACE OF CONFLUENCE
Washington, DC, USA
D.C. Museum of Contemporary Art
Concept, 2019
This project intends to synthetize multiple architectural interests into a wholistic form. Several different aspects including typological organization, social activity, contextual influence and historical connotations are analyzed and instrumentalized to generate an idiosyncratic formal language – the confluence bundled roof system.
The project proposes a new form of museum for DC that fuses the infrastructural quality of the bridge together with the singular characteristics of the museum. The geometry of the museum is a product of negotiation between its internal organization of programs and its circulatory bridging functionalities. The confluence roof system is a formal, structural and tectonic solution informed both by the site context and typological study of museums. Its geometry and structural property are adaptive to the complex contextual influences and programmatic requirements.
The conflicting and conforming flow of the roof bundles formally responding to the poignant status of the highway severed site, at the same time creating a walkable roof surface that is bridging and suturing the fragmented site parcels. The roof bundle system also provides a porous surface, while walking on the roof bridge of the museum, the visitors can frequently drip down and experience the museum space without going inside of the museum.
The organization of the building acts as an notational device that compositionally reifying the conceptual deviation of the axes between the existing monuments. Two main axial vectors of the building are derived from the axial deviation between the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. As a byproduct, the axial alignments provide the building with visual framing opportunities for the monuments. As shown in the rendered image above, the Washington Monument is framed viewing from the central outdoor square of the building. Two main axial vectors of the building are derived from the axial deviation between the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. As a byproduct, the axial alignments provide the building with visual framing opportunities for the monuments. As shown in the rendered image above, the Washington Monument is framed viewing from the central outdoor square of the building.
The envelope of the building behaves ontologically like a reactive surface that constantly responds to the complex contextual, programmatic, and functional demands of the building. Its form is directly influenced by the internal spatial and structural requisites, the anchoring parcels that divided by the highways, the axial vectors from the monuments, and most importantly, the circulatory arrangements that reconnect the site. The outcome is a shell-like surface envelope that sutures the divided parcels organized by a confluence of diverse circulatory forces. The musuem on the site, in this case, is the same tima a bridge.
Various programs with distinct spatial characteristics are housed underneath the confluence surface. It contains columnless atrium, large span free plan gallery, enfilade galleries, auditoriums, and cafes. Each of the program demands specific formal and structural configurations and are subsequently reflected in the design of the exterior surface envelope. Under such condition, the surface envelope maintains overall formal coherence while adopts local transformations that are congenial to the internal situations.
The long span gallery provides a flexible space that is adaptive to different kind of exhibition types. In the gallery space, the vault-like shell bulging outwards to span across the space, at the same time gives greater height to the interior space. At the threshold between the gallery and the atrium the vault drops down to become slanted columns to hold the structure. The vault shell is inverted in the atrium space, to provide flat walkable surface on top. The cavity betwen the inverted vault and the flat surface becomes the space for the structural truss and mechanical pipings.
The inverted vaults eliminate the need for columns in the atrium, thus providing continuous open space with no visual obstacles. Together with the ground floor composition informed by the highway context, the sense of flowing of the space is engendered in the atrium, subtly guiding people to different destinations.The gaps between the vaults let the natural light into the atrium that significantly improves the interior lighting condition of the space.
The enfilade gallery provides a more traditional gallery space. Similar to the long span flexible gallery, the vault geometry is also a defining character in the design of the enfilade gallery. This time the vault is liberated from the spanning dutiesl. Therefore, the width of the vaults becomes flexible. Three different widths of the vaults are introduced to provide different sizes of the gallery rooms. In between the vaults, external circulations descend into the gallery space that let the visitors see the gallery collections without getting inside of the gallery.
In between the gaps of the structure bays, ramps and staircases descend from the roof deck into the gallery spaces, penetrating the walls of the gallery, creating interior visual connections between the rooms. The visitors on the deck can descend into the gallery space via the ramps and staircases to see the artworks without the need to enter the museum. This element makes the museum space truely public. People can experience the artworks when they are only crossing the site to use the building as a bridge. During the government shutdowns, the artworks in the museum can be displayed to the public even when the museum is not in operation.
D.C. Museum of Contemporary Art
Concept, 2019
This project intends to synthetize multiple architectural interests into a wholistic form. Several different aspects including typological organization, social activity, contextual influence and historical connotations are analyzed and instrumentalized to generate an idiosyncratic formal language – the confluence bundled roof system.
The project proposes a new form of museum for DC that fuses the infrastructural quality of the bridge together with the singular characteristics of the museum. The geometry of the museum is a product of negotiation between its internal organization of programs and its circulatory bridging functionalities. The confluence roof system is a formal, structural and tectonic solution informed both by the site context and typological study of museums. Its geometry and structural property are adaptive to the complex contextual influences and programmatic requirements.
The conflicting and conforming flow of the roof bundles formally responding to the poignant status of the highway severed site, at the same time creating a walkable roof surface that is bridging and suturing the fragmented site parcels. The roof bundle system also provides a porous surface, while walking on the roof bridge of the museum, the visitors can frequently drip down and experience the museum space without going inside of the museum.
The organization of the building acts as an notational device that compositionally reifying the conceptual deviation of the axes between the existing monuments. Two main axial vectors of the building are derived from the axial deviation between the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. As a byproduct, the axial alignments provide the building with visual framing opportunities for the monuments. As shown in the rendered image above, the Washington Monument is framed viewing from the central outdoor square of the building. Two main axial vectors of the building are derived from the axial deviation between the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. As a byproduct, the axial alignments provide the building with visual framing opportunities for the monuments. As shown in the rendered image above, the Washington Monument is framed viewing from the central outdoor square of the building.
The envelope of the building behaves ontologically like a reactive surface that constantly responds to the complex contextual, programmatic, and functional demands of the building. Its form is directly influenced by the internal spatial and structural requisites, the anchoring parcels that divided by the highways, the axial vectors from the monuments, and most importantly, the circulatory arrangements that reconnect the site. The outcome is a shell-like surface envelope that sutures the divided parcels organized by a confluence of diverse circulatory forces. The musuem on the site, in this case, is the same tima a bridge.
Various programs with distinct spatial characteristics are housed underneath the confluence surface. It contains columnless atrium, large span free plan gallery, enfilade galleries, auditoriums, and cafes. Each of the program demands specific formal and structural configurations and are subsequently reflected in the design of the exterior surface envelope. Under such condition, the surface envelope maintains overall formal coherence while adopts local transformations that are congenial to the internal situations.
The long span gallery provides a flexible space that is adaptive to different kind of exhibition types. In the gallery space, the vault-like shell bulging outwards to span across the space, at the same time gives greater height to the interior space. At the threshold between the gallery and the atrium the vault drops down to become slanted columns to hold the structure. The vault shell is inverted in the atrium space, to provide flat walkable surface on top. The cavity betwen the inverted vault and the flat surface becomes the space for the structural truss and mechanical pipings.
The inverted vaults eliminate the need for columns in the atrium, thus providing continuous open space with no visual obstacles. Together with the ground floor composition informed by the highway context, the sense of flowing of the space is engendered in the atrium, subtly guiding people to different destinations.The gaps between the vaults let the natural light into the atrium that significantly improves the interior lighting condition of the space.
The enfilade gallery provides a more traditional gallery space. Similar to the long span flexible gallery, the vault geometry is also a defining character in the design of the enfilade gallery. This time the vault is liberated from the spanning dutiesl. Therefore, the width of the vaults becomes flexible. Three different widths of the vaults are introduced to provide different sizes of the gallery rooms. In between the vaults, external circulations descend into the gallery space that let the visitors see the gallery collections without getting inside of the gallery.
In between the gaps of the structure bays, ramps and staircases descend from the roof deck into the gallery spaces, penetrating the walls of the gallery, creating interior visual connections between the rooms. The visitors on the deck can descend into the gallery space via the ramps and staircases to see the artworks without the need to enter the museum. This element makes the museum space truely public. People can experience the artworks when they are only crossing the site to use the building as a bridge. During the government shutdowns, the artworks in the museum can be displayed to the public even when the museum is not in operation.
