city+museum

Archeology o f t h e g i v e nmodel by cassie johnston

photograph by cassie johnston

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

I started this project documenting and researching ex-isting buildings in India and Japan designed by Le Cor-busier. The existing buildings included the National mu-seum of Western Art (NmWA) located in Tokyo, Japan; another buiding we looked into was located in Ahmed-abad, India known as sanskar Kendra (City museum); the last building researched was the Government mu-seum and Art Gallery located in Chandigarh, India.

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

Le Corbusier had designed all three of his mu-seums to be extended upon. He had estab-lished the same grid with all three. However, each museum is different in it’s own way. The sanskar Kendra in Ahmedabad, India is de-signed to be on pilotis through which the build-ing is entered into an open court from which a ramp, opened to the sky, and leads to the exhi-bition levels. All precautions are taken against the excessive temperature of the day. It is as-sured that visits to the museum will be made in the evening and nighttime. The original de-

SanSkar kendrasign consisted of the guests ending up on the roof during the night with a wonderful flowered surface formed by more than 45 basins all filled with wa-ter. The water would have been protected from the torrid sun by the shade of thick vegetation.

The illumination of the spaces has become an in-tegral part of the museum’s impression on the visi-tor. It has become a determining element of the architecture. The illumination of the space extends under the entire surface of the ceiling, which is placed in shadow against the effects of the sun.

A h m e d a b a d , I n d i a

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

Researching information on the Government museum and Art Gallery located in Chandigarh was difficult, for the sole reason that it is a govern-ment building. However, luckily I did not have to visit the museum to see the interior; my profes-sor, mike Christenson, had visited the museum in his past excursions abroad and was able to take some pictures and had even built a digital model.

Inspecting his pictures and drawings of the Gov-ernment museum I was able to make a conclu-sion about the building. It became clear that Le Corbusier was interested in the look of concrete and how that affects the lighting of the spaces. Corbusier designed the museum so that there was no direct sunlight the lighting is reflective.

gov’t museumC h a n d i g a r , I n d i a

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

The National museum of Western Art (NmWA) located in Tokyo, Japan was my favorite con-struction that I had researched that Le Corbusier had designed. The story of how the NmWA was established started with a wealthy Japanese resident in Paris, named m. matsukata, had ac-cumulated a stunning collection of Impressionist Art, both painting and sculpture. During the war of ’39 the French Government considered this collection as a war prize. After negotiations, the

collection was restored to the Japanese government on the condition that it be housed in a new building in Tokyo, which shall be called “the National museum of Fine Arts of the West”. The Japanese government called upon Le Corbusier to construct the museum.

The site of the museum is covered with beautiful trees; it is located on the edge of a plateau domi-nating Tokyo with a beautiful panorama of the city.

n.m. of western a.T o k y o , J a p a n

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

my hybrid design of the three museums wasn’t very thought out. I wish I could have had more time to think of a great design, something that reflected what I was thinking. While research-ing the three museums a constant question kept on popping up in my head how does a visitor from out of town view the city of Fargo? What happens during each stage of visiting (parking,

driving, walking, etc.)? How does the visitor see Fargo? How do they feel? These questions would be how I would have designed a well thought out museum. However, since I did not give myself the time that I needed to develop my thoughts, I de-veloped a hybrid. I looked at what each museum had in common and combined them into a hybrid.

hybrid f a r g o

M = (Vs + Sv) x LFor project 2 we begin with Bernard Tschumi’s well known assertion that no fixed relation-ship can be established between an archi-tectural form and the events that take place within it. so we were challenged to address the above equation. (m = (Vs + sv) x L)

m = the design of a City museum for Far-go. Addressing this question: What con-

stitutes the architecture of a museum if the object being exhibited is the city itself?

Vs = The Visibility of structure

sv = The structure of visibility

L= A location within Fargo

extrapolationi n t h e m a t e r i a l f i e l dmodel by cassie johnston

photograph by cassie johnston

I started this project with several models and draw-ings produced by matt scolund. These models serve to establish an extrapolation of the existing set of museums. During this project it was our re-sponsibility to find two possible sites to construct a city museum where the city is on display. I first took pictures of matt’s previous hybrid museum model; I then started tracing the highlights of the picture.

From there I put the tracings aside and found out where I wanted the sites to be. my num-ber one site was located at the us Bank com-plex downtown Fargo, the other site was located on the northern part of Island Park also close to downtown Fargo. I designed the Fargo City mu-seum to be placed at the us bank complex. I chose this site as my number one because it is located at the center of downtown. The building design is meant to be experienced by walking.

trace drawing by cassie johnston

The design of the building, if laid out, would be-come a figure ground map of the city. What better way to put the city on display then by designing the exterior skin of the facades to be a direct representation of the city itself?

map drawn by cassie johnston

model by cassie johnstonphotograph by cassie johnston

my main focus for the design was the skin of the building. I had researched how cur-tain walls are put together, how I would be able to attach the skin to the curtain wall, and how the exterior of the building would appear.

extensioni n t he ma te r ia l f i e ld

I began this project with several models and drawings produced by Teddy Greenprice in the previous project. These models and drawings served to establish a possible field of operation for expanding the volume of the Fargo City Museum by fifty percent. We also had to read an essay called “On Adding On,” written in 1985 by stuart Cohen. The reading made a strong conclusion that additions are made to buildings to alter their func-tion or their perception, to increase their usable space, or to change their appearance in relation to a new use or current architectural style.

With my design I did not want to alter anything on Teddy’s new expansion. I did not want to alter the function, the architectural style, or the usable space. my thought on this extension of the design is that when constructing an ex-pansion on a museum if the committee was to hire a new architect for the job; they want to go in a different direction for the architectural style. This is why there are many museums that have many different styles added on to them.

With Teddy’s design he had already started expanding onto the original building. The end museum would have three distinct architectural styles. To the eye of the visitor, it is easy to tell where one style starts and where another style ends.

model by cassie johnston and teddy greenpricephotograph by cassie johnston

model by teddy greenpricephotograph by cassie johnston

rendering by cassie johnstonprogram su podium

my main focus for this project was the green roof and the structural deck that would be able to sup-port the load. I researched how waffle slabs are able to support a load, I looked into designing the slab and how the slab meets the column.

Trace+i n t e r s e c t i o nmodel by taylor broad

photograph by cassie johnston

In an attempt to trace the histories of the work I began this project with all of the material produced to date by Heather, Leah, and lastly Taylor. Any attempt must acknowledge the possibility of what might have been, the paths not followed. Instead of acknowledging the possibility of what might have been; I looked into what would have been if I were to expand again. Taylor had designed four buildings that implied that they extend into each other. His design idea began with landmass turn-ing into concrete through three stages. The first stage consisted of only landmass. The second stage consisted of concrete slabs with grass or landmass in between each slab. The third stage consisted of only concrete.

The implied space between the buildings would be where I would extend the build-ings so that they would collide into each other known as the fourth stage. In the fourth stage it would consist of fifty percent mass fifty percent concrete. However, the design would be an iteration of a collision.

model by taylor broadphotograph by cassie johnston

drawing in autocad, brought into illustra-tor, then into indesign by cassie johnston

drawing produced by Taylor Broad

This studio was a very different experience then previous semes-ters. I thoroughly en-joyed the experience. I learned a lot of dif-ferent ways on how to produce process that where I could constant-ly keep on produc-ing and getting ideas.

“The thing that is pro-duced is valued by what comes next.” I had never realized how important this quote, by our teacher mike Christenson, was until I learned the impor-tance of process work.

city+ museum