Artist Residency & Gallery

Project Details:

TIMELINE: 12 Weeks

MEDIUMS USED: Concrete, Wood, Styrofoam,

CONSTRAINTS: Must create 8 separate concrete blocks as a team, and join them together, design must originate from concrete blocks, concrete should be the main material used, two artists should be able to live in the residency with complete privacy, the design needs to feature a gallery

ABOUT THE DESIGN PROCESS:

This project was divided in two 6-week projects. The first project required us to form groups of three. Together, we had to each come up with two solid ideas and two working ideas, to eventually design 8 individual concrete blocks. The purpose of this project was to give us an understanding of concrete as a material, how it dries, its textures, its strengths and weaknesses, etc. After coming up with some designs, we had to create molds to pour concrete into. These molds were made out of foam core, and had to be tightly sealed, otherwise risking the concrete to pour out and ruin the shape. After creating three initial molds, we mixed concrete mix and water till the desired consistency, poured it in, let dry overnight, and came back the next day to remove the mold and study our models. What we found was that the foam core would cave to the heat of the concrete and would therefore stick to our models. We then attempted a fourth model realizing that if we lined the inside of the foam core with thick layers of clear tape, it would essentially eliminate our issue. Though labor intensive, the preparation process eliminated the painstaking task of scratching and peeling foam core away. Once all our concrete blocks set, we had to create a base for them and present them. We decided to allocate them in the formation found in "Concrete blocks and initial ideation" because of the seeming flexibility that it gave to the concrete. We also built our base out of wood and painted it white, while also filling it with colorful fishbowl rocks. The rocks were chosen to further contrast the concrete blocks from their environment and allow for more playfulness. 

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The second part of our project was the design of the artist residency itself. Originally, I created models utilizing strictly the shape of our concrete blocks which resulted in very interesting, albeit limiting geometries. As a result, I underwent many design changes until I settled on replicating the serpentine-like circulation of the gallery while utilizing a simpler shape for the façade. Following the philosophy of "form follows function", the gallery's first floor features two separate openings, one for the entrance and one for the exit. The building retains a triangular atrium around which the gallery wraps as it goes upwards. The gallery's circulation takes inspiration from the Bramante Staircase in the Vatican Museum by Giuseppe Momo. The stairs are as much part of the experience as the artwork displayed on them. The residency's gradual and relatively flat stairway utilizes the longest length inside the building to gradually take viewers up, encountering platforms with art every few steps. The second floor is again split between private studio space, and the gallery. The third floor features the last portion of the gallery, after which guests are guided by the intuitive geometry to take the exit stairs down to the first floor, where they can enjoy refreshments at the café before leaving. The space is designed so that the artist can either be part of the experience and observe people as they walk by through the glass, or work quietly in the more private areas, creating an artist residency fit for a multitude of different artists.