In this studio we were asked to design a teaching museum for the Wesleyan University, not far away from New Haven. The Wesleyan campus has a number of important architectural landmarks, such as the Roche Dinkeloo Arts complex, partially underground. The campus is also enriched by a varierty of flora, and its park-like nature has been preserved through my design. The museum was to have both educational and display devices, open vs closed storage, auditoriums, four different galleries, various offices and workrooms.

My project is organized according to the following three premises:

1) Permanence versus Temporality:
Campus buildings often change their function over time. Physics buildings become dorms, service buildings be come classrooms. For this project, our brief was quite specific, and I had reservations about the long term viability of its fragmented structure. How ever, as opposed to providing a space where anything can happen and which would therefore be non specific, I wanted to engage the brief on its specificity and have therefore chosen for a strategy of a stepped permanent to temporary structure. The base of the building is a solid concrete vessel, that is sunken below grade. This permanent structure integrates circulation and provides a large surface for future development. Within this structure, a building is designed that has various degrees of reconstructability, but is mainly light and uses hooks and support nodes of the concrete structure for its foundation, structural support, circulation and ventilation system. The building’s main envelopes are offset from the concrete structure to allow for air flow. The cavity which is created is therefore both duct and a tactile, but not visual separation between permanent and temporary elements.

2) Human to Landscape scale:
To further diversify the architecture present on the Wesleyan campus, I have chosen to use the way the building engages the ground in an additional way as those offered already on the site. Balancing the scale of the adjacent buildings and the vertical scale created by the large trees on the site, I felt a strategy of vertical recession was appropriate. This also alleviates the courtyard park behind the building from a large presence that would interfere with its openness. My building is therefore for a large part constructed below grade, and allows for users to populate various parts of the roof.

3) Program Organization:
The third principle of the building is its organization. The building is divided in two parts, a private administration and back of house section, mostly opaque, and an open gallery section. They are separated and rotated to provide the maximum envelope while still maintaining the trees and their root systems. The front section addresses the road and the adjacent Davidson art center, while the larger rear volume addresses the campus courtyard. The volumes themselves are split up in three levels, a private level sandwiched in between public levels, which have various sectional relationships. Private and public is expressed in circulation by the use of tunnels, or opaque walkways, for private circulation, and bridges for public circulation. The programme is expressed in the main volume which is the gallery and integrated open study areas, in which volumes for the various other departments are literally suspended. An open visual organization is hereby achieved, offering both recognizability due to coding of volumes with material type, as well as a visual complexity that I find engaging. The gallery spaces are thus left completely unprogrammed, allowing for a large variety of configurations.

Climate and Lighting
The climate and lighting strategies are closely interwoven, where there are devices to allow for any circumstance wanted. Both an outdoor sun shading system to prevent internal heat gain and an internal shading system to allow for diffused light to enter and energy supply during winter are in place, and completely configurable. The indoor system takes the form of a battery of vertical adjustable banners, mixed black and white, which each have a certain degree of transmittance. Due to their number and placing, the space can be configured for various lighting levels and climate control.