Gallery for Contemporary Art

Description

This project integrates a gallery addition into an existing residence with the design of an outdoor landscape for artworks on a forested 6-acre (2.4-hectare) site. The hybrid program for this project includes a dance space, an office with high-tech telecommunication facilities, a pool, and gallery spaces for a collection of contemporary and modern art with two exterior courtyards and a sculpture garden. The design accommodates these requirements in a single, flowing space, providing maximum wall space for large-scale artworks, as well as smaller paintings and prints, bringing views and natural daylight into the gallery spaces, and protecting artworks from damaging UV light.

The design creates six contiguous, uninterrupted ceiling and roof planes to unite the existing residence with a series of new spaces that flow across a 48-foot-long (15 meter) pool of water. A habitable internal skylight well is suspended above the pool to reflect filtered western sunlight from the surface of the water into the galleries. At night, the light well functions as a quiet void space that bounces light off the ceiling to illuminate the gallery with ambient light.

The project redefines the hierarchies of domesticity, leisure, and the workplace, and proposes a new contemporary landscape for art that offers an alternative to the institutionalised spaces of art museums and galleries.