V&A at dundee

source: designboom

earlier this year, the dundee city council launched an international architecture competition
to design a new £47m center for art and design. ‘V&A at dundee’, which will sit on the bank
of the river tay at the foot of the city’s union street, is a collaborative effort by london’s
victoria and albert museum, abertay and dundee universities, dundee city council and
scottish enterprise. the new center will be scotland’s leading centre for design and art.

one of the 6 shortlisted international firms is new-york based REX headed by principal architect joshua prince-ramus. the design is a crystallized volume clad in mirror glass. much like the louisiana
museum of modern art in denmark, the centre utilizes a spoke-and-hub system of organization,
creating multiple gallery spaces that can function independently from one another.
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source: adsorguk

“Despite an increased need to accommodate change, contemporary design still relies on an antiquated version of flexibility: one size fits all. The ultimate result of this simplification, however, is each program competing for survival in an unresponsive building. Holding program clusters distinct and addressing potential evolutions on individual terms allows each cluster’s design to develop and subsequently evolve after completion of the building without sacrificing the capabilities of any other. The V&A at Dundee’s program can be clearly divided into four groups: by retaining a level of autonomy between these program types, a malleable organisation can be formed, robust enough to accept stakeholder feedback during design and beyond, without jeopardizing the building’s overall coherence and beauty. ‘The Bluebell’ takes these responses as the catalysts to its design strategy.”
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source: rex-ny

We challenge and advance typologies.
REX feels it’s time for Architecture to do things again, not just represent things.

We design collaborations rather than dictate solutions.
The media sells simple, catchy ideas; it reduces teams to individuals and their collaborative work to genius sketches. The proliferation of this false notion of “starchitecture” diminishes the real teamwork that drives celebrated architecture. REX believes architects should guide collaboration rather than impose solutions. We replace the traditional notion of authorship: “I created this object,” with a new one: “We nurtured this process.”

We embrace responsibility in order to implement vision.
The implementation of good ideas demands as much, if not more, creativity than their conceptualization. Increasingly reluctant to assume liability, architects have retreated from the accountability (and productivity) of Master Builders to the safety (and impotence) of stylists. To execute vision and retain the insight that facilitates architectural invention, REX re-engages responsibility. Processes, including contractual relationships, project schedules, and procurement strategies, are the things with which we design.

We don’t rush to architectural conclusions.
The largest obstacle facing clients and architects is their failure to speak a common language. By taking adequate time to think with our clients before commencing the traditional design process, it is our proven experience that we can provide solutions of greater clarity and quality. With our clients, we identify the core questions they face, and establish shared positions from which we collectively evaluate the architectural proposals that follow.

We side with neither form nor function.
REX believes that the struggle between form and function is superficial and unproductive. By emphasizing performance instead—a hybrid that does not discriminate between program, organization, and form—we free architecture from the tired debate over whether it is an art or a tool. Art performs; tools perform. The measure of high performance is relative to each client’s aspirations and each project’s constraints.

We reach for the unexpected by exposing root problems.
We don’t innovate for innovation’s sake. Nor do we accept predigested solutions. We return to root problems and doggedly explore them with a critical naiveté. Unprejudiced by convention, we expose solutions that transcend those we could have initially or individually imagined. Sometimes we discover uncharted territory; sometimes we rediscover forgotten territory that has renewed usefulness; sometimes we reaffirm conventions with assured conviction.

We view constraints as opportunities.
Engaged intelligently, project challenges such as site conditions, budgets, schedules, codes, and politics are opportunities that can catalyze the most innovative solutions. Architectural concepts that capitalize on our clients’ constraints will surpass any vision that resists intractable realities. We produce specific designs that are highly effective, not universals diluted in application. We advance new strategies for flexibility.
Despite an increased need to accommodate change, contemporary design still relies on an antiquated version of flexibility: one size fits all. The promise of a blank slate upon which any activity can occur has produced sterile, unresponsive architecture. REX advocates delimiting activities and addressing the possible evolutions of each on its own terms. With this strategy, one activity can evolve without sacrificing another, and collisions between activities unleash surprising potentials.
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source: vmspace

REX의 공모전 참여작은 ‘SPOKE-and-HUB’ 이론을 기반으로 한다. ‘SPOKE-and-HUB’란 물류 운송 업체 Fedex의 경영자가 고안한 구조로, 자전거나 자동차 바퀴같이 중앙에 집결된 조직의 형태를 말한다. Spoke에서 정보를 관리하고 발신하면서 각 Hub들이 공유되는 형태이다. 이 구조는 여러 프로젝트를 동시에 수행하는 구조에 적합하지만, Spoke가 중앙의 역할을 제대로 수행하지 못할 경우 각 프로그램이 효율적으로 작동하지 못하는 단점을 안고 있다. REX의 계획안에서 Spoke는 중앙코어를 말한다. 이 중앙코어는 관람객을 이동시키는 중추적인 역할을 함과 동시에 ‘갤러리 산책’의 기점이기도 하다. Hub에는 4개의 프로그램이 배치되었는데 시민들을 위한 편의시설, 작품 수송을 위한 운반시설, 스코틀랜드 디자인을 연구하기 위한 아카이빙 시설, 마지막으로 전시시설이 이에 해당된다. 이런 다양한 공간의 프로그래밍은 일반인들의 호기심을 불러일으키는 실험적인 공간으로 발전될 수 있다.

뮤지엄은 이런 과정을 거쳐 역 피라미드 형태로 뮤지엄이 형상화 되었다. 이는 스코틀랜드의 전통꽃인 블루벨과 유사하다. 마치 기념비적인 유리 구조물이 도심 속에 꽃을 피운 듯하다. 관람객들은 레이 강을 마주하는 건물 실내에서 거대한 유리 홀을 통해 쏟아지는 자연채광을 접할 수 있다. <에디터 이경택>