Contemplating the Void: Art Trap
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum receives about 900,000 visitors annually, ranging from tourists to art connoisseurs.
The building is always packed with people in perpetual motion activated by Frank Lloyd Wright's radical vision of a museum
-- a quarter-mile-long ramp spiraling around an iconic void. While museums were traditionally intended as contemplative
spaces, the Guggenheim has become, in a sense, a victim of its own success due to an over-saturation of human movement in
a singular space. Our proposal aims to accomplish the seemingly incompatible: to restore a museum environment conducive
to experiencing art and to maximize and heighten other experiences brought about by the iconic status of the museum itself.
Separation
We started out by challenging the singularity of the space by separating it into two components with radically
different spatial qualities and purposes. The introduction of a third element will interrupt the visual link between the
central void and the ramp. This new element will block the view of the void and of the movement around the ramp, protecting
the ramp environment from the visual noise of the rotunda and focusing attention toward the periphery walls and, as a
result, the artwork.
Trap
What we propose programmatically with our separation is to trap, i.e., to force a pause. This programmatic component
was not considered by Wright, who envisioned a space defined by tireless motion. Due to its popularity, the combination
of movement and density has created a shortage of space both physical and psychological. The shielding element
is composed of 180 saddle-like seats along the entire ramp for pausing and viewing the rotunda. These seats protrude into
the void with access ladders arranged in between the floor and the ceiling over the guardrails. Each of the 90 access ladders
holds two cantilevering seats, which are angled gradually as they ascend to allow a view of the central area at ground level
that functions almost like a stage -- as though the rotunda were a new hybrid of opera house and arena. The 180 protrusions
over the void are draped with a single, soft and translucent membrane that functions as a safety net.
The pop-out pods, each approximately 60 cm deep, contain seats and are positioned throughout this membrane. Each pod
has five openings for the head and limbs, which make the membrane much like a garment that can be worn collectively by
180 people. This creates a tactile intimacy to a collective experience that is otherwise primarily visual.
Celestial Bodies
This separation will provide two radically different scenes. One is of 180 spectators who have
become spectacles themselves, as if they were performing as a part of a living Baroque ceiling sculpture. They are, in fact,
resting and/or observing the view across and below, suspended in the void, reminiscent of some heavenly scene. The other
is the posterior view of the 180: still, resting, motionless, limbless bodies strung sequentially along the ramp, as though they
were works of art, like the art displayed on the opposite walls.
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