Final Poster Submission

Printable Version:


Link to Interactive PDF:
http://rapidshare.com/files/299729366/VitraPosterInteractive.pdf.html

Peer Review

Lili Hinh:
Savas Stavridis

Frank Gehry Dancing Building

The dancing building, or National- Neaderladen building was one of the first designs that Frank Gehry employed 3D computer modelling techniques, and is noted as the first building which had ever used Catia. Having used Catia and other engineering programs in order to calculate equations for every point, Gehry also had to use 3D modellers to obtain the complex geometries from his massing models. "The angled tower's vertical steel T-Members are curved in two directions and twisted and no two glass panels are the same."
The two towers are distorted cylinders. The solid static tower known as Fred is made of concrete and displays a larger diameter at the top. The fluid glass town know as Ginger is a glass and steel curtain wall tower is taller and wider at the, squeezed in the dramatically in the middle and supported by pitched legs to make it appear as if the tower is leaning on Fred. The legs create an open public space on ground level.
Stucco was used on the facade to help blend in with the traditional buildings that surround it, which includes wavy lines that stream horizontally toward the towers. Stucco also provides a soft texture which is common in old Prague and reads as one continuous element.
But behind all the curved facades there is a simple plan based on L shaped circulation which allowed for the maximum number of people to share the view of the river, which is then broken up in continuity by the windows which move up and down with the curves to keep with the feeling of fluidity and the notion of 'matter into motion'.
Text And Images.
Fialova, Irena. Frank Gehry Vlado Milunic Dancing Building. Zlaty Rez, Prague 2003.

Textures

Textures I Plan To Incorporate Into My Redevelopment Model.

Interior And Exterior Image Of Redeveloped Vitra

As you can the interior shots don't really reveal much as this is highly conceptual space and you are not able to actually enter the interior of the redeveloped museum.

Draft Poster

Poster Text

The redesign of Frank Gehry’s Vitra Museum was inspired by Damien Hirst. Frank Gehry had envisioned originally a building in which each separate room and area had a different feeling due to lighting, volume, and area. The original Vitra Museum I felt did not achieve this as the lacklustre white walls left a cold and sterile feeling through-out the entire Museum.

Originally I wanted to touch on this fact by introducing new lighting schemes within each separate room, but as I was doing this it looked messy and all over the place. There seemed to be nothing holding it together.

So, I decided to incorporate one lighting design scheme to change the way you viewed the space.

The only way to incorporate more light into a space is to open the walls up. I like the look of light as it comes in slits and bounces off wall surfaces. This is where the Damien Hirst inspiration came in. His famous animals in which he slices in half to show the working innards come together as a whole seemed to mirror the way Gehry’s sculptural blocks come together as a whole in Vitra.

I felt that the whitewashed walls would contrast well with the newly painted interior walls that playfully show through the slices to allow the viewers to see peeks of how things work inside from the outside world.

My re-envisioned model captures audience attention by allowing them to view the inside from the outside in a new manner, and interact with the building in a new way by allowing them to weave in and out of the building, as well as climb through and on the museum.

One definition of museum includes: A building, place, or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition, and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical, or artistic value. I believe that my re-interpretation includes the building as one of these objects now. It allows the study of an interpretation of artistic value of the entire building. The museum becomes an experience itself as you get to interact with it as well as interact with what it houses.

It is a shame that you are only able to complete something like this in an interactive world as I believe that being able to touch and feel the concrete and solid building and looking down along the ground and seeing the different shadows spilled across the lawn would be beautiful. With such interesting shapes and sculptural elements to the original building casting unique shadows itself the development of slicing them create a sense of intrigue into how they may cast themselves off in the redevelopment.

Poster Layout Ideas

Inspiration Poster

Inspiration Photos

150 Words-- Redevelopment Ideas

I would like to explore the materiality and lighting of the Vitra Design Museum in my redevelopment of it. I find that the materials used are very cold, stark and plain. Using different materials and stronger lighting would change the feeling inside and create a different experience as you are making your way through the space.
Frank Gehry first explained the differences in room by wanting a different feeling as you enter and exit each room, although as each room may have a different size and shape they still have the same sterile hospital feeling. Through changing some of the materials in the interior I wish to create a warm comfortable feeling through out the space, and truly finish Gehry's vision.
Using different lighting I also wish to achieve this. I would like to increase natural light into some of the spaces using a slanted window at the top of the wall in one room. The slant being used to protect and ensure only soft lighting and not direct lighting on some of the pieces within the museum.

Image Match Up

Sketch Up Model Vitra Design Model

Frank Gehry Dancing Building

The Dancing Building by Frank Gehry is properly known as the Nationale-Nederlanden Building is located in Prague. Designed and built between 1992-96 in a collaboration between Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic.
Frank Gehry says of this building that it is a "sense of music, motion and dance, that, as an architect, I have striven to embody in this buildings form".
Together with Milunic, both men had a concept of "matter that burst into motion" for this building. Strangely enough the first plans of the design of the building was still in a static motion, and had fragmented in a true Gehry style into smaller portions.
The building is nicknamed the dancing building due to the two towers that impact it. The towers during the time of the design were nicknamed Fred and Ginger after Fred Astaire and Ginger as the towers appear to be dancing. Medusa, the hat structure on top of Fred was added into the design later on.
The design of Ginger rests lightly atop slender animated columns. The middle of Ginger is also pinched narrowly in the middle to allow neighbours to have a view of the river still. During the design process numerous models of Ginger were designed and tested. A majority of the design process went in to producing Ginger. It was said that when they had Ginger right Fred just fell into place.
The structure organically fits into the Prague traditions of dynamic Baroque. The fluidity of the riverfront facade smooths the transition of new building into old. The windows that in appearance move up and down as well as project forward combined with the patterning on the walls enhance the feeling of the rhythmic effect across the surface. And the windows appear according to Frank Gehry like "framed pictures on the walls".

References:

Ragheb, J.Fiona. Frank Gehry, Architect. J. Fiona Ragheb, Editor. Guggenheim Museum Publication, New York 2001.

Fialova, Irena. Frank Gehry Vlado Milunic Dancing Building. Zlaty Rez, Prague 2003.

Image Sourced From:
http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/STK/STK015/dancing-building-frank_~CWE3816.jpg

Vitra Design Museum Research

The Vitra Furniture Museum and Factory was built between 1987-1989 in Weil am Rhein in Germany. The overall design comprises of three different parts; the furniture assembly plant, the museum to house furniture collection, and the master plan of the site. What we are focusing on is the small museum. The museum includes a library, office, storage/support and exhibition space. The construction is smooth white plaster over masonary on vertical and inverted surfaces and titanium- zinc roofing panels on sloped water shielding surfaces. It is distorted but pristine painted concrete cubes. The forms appear as though they were brought together collision.
The clients asked from Gehry a unified plan for a factory and museum which departed from disparate layering of geometries and informal materials common to Gehry's southern sculptural buildings. This is proved by the use of the curve in Vitra which breaks up the angularity of Gehry's previous structures. The baroque areas and gentle spirals simply collective movement responding to the dynamic nature of the manufacturing center.
The sloping plaster and stucco forms resemble that of Le Corbusier Notre-Dame-du-Haut (seen below) which is in nearby Ronchamp, France. The Zinc rooftops blend in with Nicholas Grimshaw's already present factory on site which features aluminum cladding.
Inside the spaces are connected volumes that spatially overlap through-out the entire building. Even though these spaces are interconnected each separate space has its own character according to the light, volume, surface and scale.




Frank Gehry: The Complete Works. Francesco Dal Co. Monacelli Press Inc. 1998. pg. 362-367

Frank Gehry, Architect. J. Fiona Ragheb Editor. Kara Vander Weg. Guggenheim Museum Publication, New York, 2001. pg. 110-117.


International Dictionary of Architects and Architecture 1- Architects. Ed. Randall J. Van Vynckt. St. James Press, Detroit. 1993. pg. 302-203.

Interactive PDF Poster

http://www.filefront.com/14553707/poster.pdf

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