BERFIN EVRIM
Architecture & Design
Museum of Alexander Calder
Philadelphia, PA
Horizontality has a strong influence on the site .Therefore, this project is about creating horizontal layers according to program and site condition which blend in the nature of the site. Consequently, this project takes the height difference that topography creates as an advantage and has walkable green roof structure above the layers that encourages people to walk over the roof and have a chance to create visual connection with the sculpture garden, art street garden and the courtyard.
The art street garden is located among the green roofs and reachable by outside. Each layer has different light level because of the roof structure. The darker rooms contain drawings of Calder and the smaller size of wire sculptures. The height of these rooms is shorter than other rooms in order to avoid distracting and increase focusing. The lighter rooms are exhibition space of bigger scale sculptures, café, bookstore and entrance space. The interior of the museum also gets daylight by the courtyard that is placed across the entrance for exhibition of Calder’s sculptures. The courtyard is also visible from the art street garden so it increases the curiosity of people who walk by.
A stepped garden connects the museum floor level with the topography level. The horizontality also appears on the design of the garden. The sculptures appear among the walls of walking path that leads people to entrance of the museum. The diagonal wall that cuts the topography directs to entrance and the shifted rectangle boxes welcome people from Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
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Spring 2017