Group Project Plate of Juxtapositions
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Xiaoxue (Iris) Ma,
M.Arch. 2019
CoCo Tin, B. Arch. 2019
Class
ARCH 5101 Design VI Option Studio: Found ThingInstructor
SofĂa von Ellrichshausen
Mauricio Pezo
Situated in a clearing on the edge of a cliff, this entity of opposition, yet harmony is only reachable by a trail from a trail. Poised at the base of a modest downward slope, its serene presence is generously announced with a clean box face. As a whole, the building is of two distinctly opposing forms and only connected through a threshold that continues the visual and physical axis initiated by the entrance. Although reading as a single story monolithic figure, the interior is an intimate investigation of the vertical perception of space. Concealed along the straight facade, domesticity is pushed to its minimum, stacked on top of each other in an inverse vertical relationship. The keeper above discretely watches over the delicate pigments in the rectangular gallery. In contrast, the irregular space hosts an "uncurated" exhibition; rocks of varying scales to the body tranquility lit by high windows center on each inflection of the facade. Captured between the two exhibition halls is a public/private outdoor "courtyard" as mediator, the slightest hint of domesticity in the seemingly public-facing museum. In this synthetic peacefulness, one can comfortably forget the surprise of 24/7 surveillance that even nature itself, does not escape.