New Contemporary Art Museum
Buenos Aires, Argentina
2012
This new museum embraces the reality that contemporary art is an ephemeral condition. This proposal is conceived as a stacking of boxes within an incomplete frame. This destabilized form blurs its definition, engages its surroundings and makes art an experience which floats above the city.
As a vertical proposal, each individual gallery can be seen from far away giving the smallest events in the museum presence in the city. In addition to lifting program up off the ground, each gallery is shifted to create outdoor decks and opportunities for skylights.
Inside each gallery box, displayed art is juxtaposed with dramatic views of a dynamic metropolis and landscape. As every gallery has an exterior deck, art is free to be a highly controlled experience or one that is open to the inclinations of nature.
The stacked distribution of the galleries is supplemented with vertical circulation that allows curatorial flexibility. One can experience the galleries from the bottom up or top down. Escalators provide each visitor with a cinematographic vertical ascension through the building. Like a filmic “crane shot” the visitor can stand still and be levitated from space to space. Three elevators (two passenger and one freight) provide access to every level of the museum. With these two circulation systems, one can choose to instantly “appear” in a gallery or transition slowly from gallery to gallery.
Project Team
Jason R. Chandler, AIA
Hermann Gonzalez
Model Photos: Alan D'Amore