SITE:

The Art Gallery at the University of Florida serves as the premiere location for the exhibition of contemporary art on campus. This facility has hosted exhibits featuring students, faculty and internationally renowned artists. The Art Gallery is strategically located as the gateway from the city into the Arts Campus of the University, featuring the buildings and linking courtyards of the various art, architecture, music and humanities buildings.

 

CONCEPT:

Initially approached by Amy Dickerson, Director of the University of Florida Art Gallery to review the existing inadequate lighting, storage and safety features of the Art Gallery, the project quickly expanded into a study for the addition of a new wing following a detailed site analysis.

 

It was determined that the existing project could be quite efficiently expanded with the addition of a new wing. This expansion would not only add much needed gallery display space but create safer and more humane office areas for the curatorial staff, allow art storage to more flexible and remove the fire safety risk from blocked egress passages.

 

PROCESS:

An analysis of natural light composition and fragmentation at the site initiated the process of design. These studies of fragmentation evolved into an exercise of spontaneous morphology based on the fragmentation of physical bodies as opposed to light. A ritual dropping of clay pots from an edge was carried out and the resultant form was mapped. As the ritual was repeated over time, the form below changed in structure and mass. This procedure was then replicated in origami with the paper folds directly influencing both the path of future inhabitants for the gallery and the proposed walls and surfaces of the gallery.

 

The resultant forms were subsequently mapped in 3D computer models and physical models.

 

MATERIALITY:

The project is constructed with a shop fabricated metal frame. The exterior walls are insulated veneer brick to match the existing campus identity. The flooring is polished concrete.