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Thomas Phifer and Partners designed the North Carolina Museum of Art NCMA in Raleigh, completed in 2010. Tucked behind a pocket of forest inside the city, the museum emerges through the rolling grassy hills and trees like barns in an agriculture landscape. The layout is very rectilinear and regimented, with no attempt at mimicking the natural landscape.
These barns are stacked evenly next to each other with no hierarchy of spaces. Exterior art spaces protrude cleanly into the buildings, with reflecting pools and gardens taking on an immediate rectilinear form. These buildings are wisely kept minimal, subtle white textures and slightly translucent repetitive forms, all very peaceful. The inside is a great achievement of interior lighting. Warm track lighting is evenly balanced with sheer wall glazing and overhead skylights. White curtains cover the sheer walls of windows, giving an intimacy and private atmosphere. The skylights are oval shaped and dynamic, yet very repetitive and thus tied back to the structure. The even light and repetitive lighting devices reinforce a lack of hierarchy or way-finding, leaving it to the visitor to wander where he will. There are three important statements of this architecture. Decide for yourself where to go and what art is more important. Keep the structure minimal and repetitive so that the natural surrounding speaks loud. Do not try to imitate natural complexity. And third, do not forsake the beauty of a simple metal barn on the farm landscape. |
(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
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(Suzie T– flickr/creative commons license)
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(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
(Suzie T– flickr/creative commons license)
(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
(moonlightbulb– flickr/creative commons license)
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(dannyfowler– flickr/creative commons license)
(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
(messyurbanist– flickr/creative commons license)
