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.