Midterm

I'm finally getting a few items posted that I've been promising to do over the last couple weeks. The first is my midterm presentation. We are attempting to design an art museum to house a modern art collection from here in Macerata. The site is an existing piazza near our studios, historic, but with a pretty awful looking bank building from the 80s. We are replacing the bank.

My approach is much more aggressively modern than anyone else's here. Which I am rather pleased with. I am basing my design on the Kiasma Art Museum in Helsinki which I liked a lot from last summer. So what I have is a rectilinear "L-shaped" building combined with a curved building that connects back to form a circular space surrounding a small courtyard.

At the midterm my idea was that the curved wall would have horizontal bands of skylights along it to bring light into the galleries. But based on the feedback I got I am currently thinking I will instead use vertical bands of walls cascading down the side of the building with gaps for light in between. Also, the way I cut the curve off and formed an arch on the piazza end looked way too "church like". So I need to change the way the wall curves around the front. Unfortunately I don't know quite how to draw it yet!! In any case, here are some additional images that I presented. My drawing of a modern art statue out front looks a bit pregnant I'm afraid... I'm calling it the "Macerata Venus".

More photos here...