Defy
In the final exercise of the term, the studio postulates that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is opening a satellite in Singapore. The Satellite MoMA would have no permanent collection, it is a place for modern art to come and go. Rather than defining the museum as a place where works of art is archived, the Satellite MoMA is a dynamic space shaped by the founding mission to educate the public about modern art.
Social sculptures and constructs established years ago define today's society. Yet, venturing into the future and embracing new ideas require us to break through the conventions that has been carved in stone by the past.
Representing and symbolising that forceful exit and penetration through old, traditional and conventional practices and beliefs, Defy aims to be a standing monument to challenging and defying social norms.
The museum was designed to have three key features that sets it apart from traditional museums.
Varying elevations.
An ageing museum.
A designated journey.
varying elevation
On the interior, standing at different elevations and seeing others higher or lower than one's own eye level allows one to perceive a difference in height, which in turn creates a divide between the spaces.
On the exterior, the elevated bricks create spaces below them, some of which houses programs (such as the MoMA cafe), while others barely tall enough for visitors to traverse through. Yet, the "gap" allows for visitors to have a slight glimpse on what's on the inside, building anticipation and intrigue, drawing them into the museum.
ageing museum
The chamfered corners, depending on size and placement, form windows or doors. The chamfer windows create opportunities for light to enter, and for visitors to catch a glimpse of the centerpiece artwork.
Designated artworks are placed intentionally in places exposed to natural light through these chamfer windows, as part of the non-conservation in this museum. Allowed to deteoriate and age over time, the artwork confers a value of history to itself.
The artworks in this museum are not the only things allowed to age. The museum walls are cladded in teak, a species of hardwood that, when left to the elements untreated, weather. The museum itself ages as time passes, growing from it's original amber shade to a beautiful silvery-grey patina.
designated journey
Instead of a aimless free-roam with no order, the circulation of the museum is predetermined as one main pathway. Visitors are led on a journey from exhibit to exhibit throughout the museum. Each adjacent exhibit and programme almost become inter-related to one another.
Naturally, the journey begins at the entrance to the interior exhibits. Visitors walk through both conserved and non-conserved exhibits in the interior, passing by the design lab, stops by the performance theatre to catch the daily show, and concludes their journey opposite to where they entered the museum from, now facing the centerpiece artwork house in the central open space of the museum.
Read on to see my process.
Site study
The site given to us, on which we would design and build our MoMAsg was at the Esplanade Park, bounded by Connaught Drive to the North and North-West, Anderson Bridge to the South, Singapore River to the East, and Lim Bo Seng Memorial to the North.
Together with my course-mates, I analysed the site to discern the circulation around the site. This included identifying main pedestrian pathways, roads for vehicular access, location of bus stops where visitors may arrive via public transport, as well as accessible open spaces, etc.
These analyses enabled me to understand how visitors may access my museum, and to plan and design my progams more specifically to the site, fully taking control and exploiting the opportunities provided to me by the site.
inspiration
In my project, I drew inspiration from two contemporary art pieces of art in the 1990s, Yayoi Kusama's Walking Piece (1996) and Ai Weiwei's Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995).
The two contemporary artists are not afraid to be at the center of controversy, expressing their ideas and views on world, social, or political issues boldly through their artwork, and often display them in unconventional fashion.
Taking inspiration from them, I wanted to design a museum that defies the standard conventions that we have carved in stone today.
Yayoi Kusama, Walking Piece (Still), 1996 and Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995
conceptualisation
With that, I first asked myself the question: What is conventional?
After some research, I defined conventional museums as the following:
Dedicated to the conservation and preservation of artwork or artifacts significant to human history or culture.
Made of large spaces housing exhibits, allowing for free roam and circulation within the spaces and throughout the museum.
Distinction between spaces are made with walls and physical partitions.
And so to be unconventional is to:
Not conserve and preserve artwork.
Determine and designate a single path for visitors to traverse through, going on a journey through the exhibits they walk by.
Distinct between spaces without walls and physical partitions, such as with elevation.
Naturally, not all artists may design their artwork to be destroyed over time, and so the first point of not conserving and preserving artwork was changed to:
Conservation of some artwork or artifacts significant to human history or culture, and non-conservation of some others.
Perhaps the most counterintuitive part with the greatest degree of non-acceptance is that the museum allows for artwork to get damaged and lost over time. However, from another perspective, allowing artworks to deteoriate adds an element of time and age to it, and the fleeting existence of the exhibit confers a new sense of value in that there is beauty in age, and that the history of the artwork is recorded and seen in the artwork itself. This concept of time-limitedness is my defiance of and penetration through the old, traditional and conventional practices and beliefs in the art world.
The initial exploration was focused on creating a main central exhibition area that is exposed to the elements, so the art piece displayed in that area will deteriorate over time. I had several iterations involving various combinations of operations and methods to create what I wanted. However, not being able to define and determine a consistent design language, I formulated an additional idea to guide me in my design process.
Early iterations and exploration
A huge idea behind the concept that I was attempting to defy and break through was the dullness and monotonality of following convention and predetermined practices.
So, I used a grid of cuboids, like bricks in a brick wall, as my base geometry. These analogous bricks, identical to one another are metaphorical in their representation of the dull and boring notion of convention. Next, to create the open central exhibition space, I literally "punched" a hole through my brick wall, creating an exposed area in the center. Then, in order to differentiate and distinguish between spaces within the museum, changes in height of individual bricks were made. Lastly, selected bricks had corners chamfered to allow for lighting and circulation.
The result of the opening of the central space can be seen in the sectional drawing, where the central art piece (sphere placeholder), is exposed to the sun, rain and wind. The difference in elevation of individual bricks can also be observed here. The difference in height of each brick creates distinction between spaces on the interior, and simultaneously forms new spaces on the exterior, such as those underneath the bricks which have been elevated.
Circulation and plan drawings
SPECIAL Thanks
ANNA TOH: For her invaluable guidance as the studio's instructor.
infinite side-scrolling runner
infinite side-scrolling runner
