Architect at Skidmore
Owings & Merrill LLP

source: highlike

Work: This is a studio project designing an addition to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which aims to explore new formal possibilities in two categories: Unified Multiplicity and Redeployment. Unified Multiplicity The project is conducted as a pedagogical experiment that addresses one of the theoretical conundrums of contemporary architecture: multiplication and unification. Specifically, it tries to answer the question: How to unify different elements in architecture while still preserving its diversity? The facade is composed in a way that unifies three spatial typologies from the ground floor up—semi-urban residual space, cellular galleries, and open-plan gallery space—and clearly manifests their presence at the same time. Moreover, the open-plan gallery and the skylit rooftop form a continuous spiral system, a unified formal order that is forced to mutate between parallel and radial composition to meet different functional demands. Redeployment As an addition, the project’s scheme also questions the solutions of either, one, blunt imitation or, two, complete transgression of the old building in many current addition projects. Instead, it tries to generate a deep formal relationship between new and old through a new approach that identifies either a distinctive or hidden element in the existing building, and then redeploys it in the new building by means of another formal language. The project identifies three significant elements in the existing building—triangular tips, low entrance, and the monumental chimney—and then redeploys them in the addition with a new language. By doing so, the addition is able to inherit the deep gene of the old while developing its own unique identity.
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source: suckerpunchdaily

Unified Multiplicity

The project is conducted as a pedagogical experiment that addresses one of the theoretical conundrums of contemporary architecture: multiplication and unification. Specifically, it tries to answer the question: How to unify different elements in architecture while still preserving its diversity? The facade is composed in a way that unifies three spatial typologies from the ground floor up—semi-urban residual space, cellular galleries, and open-plan gallery space—and clearly manifests their presence at the same time. Moreover, the open-plan gallery and the skylit rooftop form a continuous spiral system, a unified formal order that is forced to mutate between parallel and radial composition to meet different functional demands.
Redeployment As an addition, the project’s scheme also questions the solutions of either, one, blunt imitation or, two, complete transgression of the old building in many current addition projects. Instead, it tries to generate a deep formal relationship between new and old through a new approach that identifies either a distinctive or hidden element in the existing building, and then redeploys it in the new building by means of another formal language. The project identifies three significant elements in the existing building—triangular tips, low entrance, and the monumental chimney—and then redeploys them in the addition with a new language. By doing so, the addition is able to inherit the deep gene of the old while developing its own unique identity.
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source: junfengwang

The starting point of this addition project is to identify a geometric system in the existing building and then take it as the motivation for generating the addition geometry, either by following or transgressing the system. By doing so, the new part of the building will be able to inherit the deep gene of the old one, thus a close geometric relationship will be generated between the old and the new.

The addition area locates at the rear side of the existing building, which has two distinctive triangular tips. The addition takes these two tips and their intersection point as the main geometric motivation, creating a radial pattern that forms the basic plan shape for the addition. Each floor of the addition part follows this basic geometric system while they are interacting with the existing gallery space.

The basic idea of the studio is to create pedagogy which will address a certain or several theoretical conundrums of contemporary architecture. The pedagogy in this project tries to deal with the relationship between multiplication and unification in architecture, namely how to unify different elements in architecture while still preserving the diversity they have produced.

The first task is to compose one façade, the geometry of which unifies the following spatial typologies from the ground floor up: semi-urban residual space, cellular galleries and open plan gallery space. The facade should not only unify these spaces, but also manifest their presence. In order to achieve that, the boundary of the floor changes from jagged to smooth while it arises, which generates the unified facade by sweeping these varied boundaries.

The second task is to add a strong and consistent formal order, a spiral or radial progression, to the building and force it to mutate by meeting other formal or programmatic demands. The mutation should produce composite forms of duality or even multiplicity.

In the project, the open plan gallery and the skylight rooftop forms a continual spiral system, which meets different functional demands by mutating between parallel and radial composition. Specifically, the spiral system starts from the gallery space, which follows the radial pattern of the lower floors, then it mutates into parallel steps which merges with the existing steps on the roof. After that the system again changes into radial pattern in order to quickly arise to the skylight rooftop. The whole system ends at the parallel skylight window, which provides the ideal path for the natural light to come into the gallery.

Except the unified multiplication, the project also tries to form a close relationship between the old and new. The main solution is to identify either a distinctive or hidden formal element in the existing building and redeploy it in the new building by means of anoth¬er formal language.

One of the formal elements is the existing extremely low entrance. The entrance of the addition adopts such lowness, yet with a new curvy language, which seemingly sucks the outside into the lobby space. This new formal language also tackles the way the building touches the ground when it tries to create the first spatial typology, which is the urban residual space.