Center for the S tudy of Russian Icons ARCH 484/584 Winter 2013 Studio Critic: James Givens
STUDIO BRIEF This intermediate vertical studio focused on the making of a new Center for the Study of Russian Icons and the preservation of the art of making icons in the traditional manner. The stated mission of the Center included gallery space for the display of a growing collection of very early Russian icons; curatorial facilities for the restoration and preservation of icons, library and research facilities for scholars of iconography, and facilities for the workshops and training in the preservation and making of icons. The 40,000 square foot Center is allied with the Portland Art Museum and is situated on an urban infill site in the heart of Portland’s burgeoning Pearl District. The studio encouraged principles of good urban design and had a strong emphasis on the art of room-making through exploratory media and the development of evocative perspective drawings.
“The Ladder of Divine Ascent,” 12th Century, Monastery of St. Catherine
Core Issue s This is a cultural institute with three distinct program areas. The program calls for an organization of three major areas: civic, creative, and gallery. The constituent groups for each program area and each mission overlap in complex and unforseeable ways. As a result, each program area, mission element, and constituent group cannot be sequestered from each other and instead should be allowed to integrate and interact. This is an urban building set in Portland’s Pearl District. The site is surrounded by the activities of city life: noise from cars and the adjacent freeway, tall mixed-use buildings, ground-floor restaurants and cafÊs, and constant motion. The building needs to be a good neighbor and contribute to the urban fabric of a district still evolving from its industrial past to a future defined by a growing creative class. Russian icons are embedded with a rich and specific cultural heritage. Experiencing the icon collection is personal and intimate, allowing the viewer to become immersed in the scene depicted. Icons are limited in size and historically were often viewed in a church setting, illuminated by daylight or candlelight. How can this kind of experience be choreographed today, and in a way that carefully protects and preserves the icons?
Primary Ide a s Building must integrate, not just include, the three program areas and support their constituencies. Integration should leave some spaces open-ended and adaptable to change. However, it is equally important that spaces continue to serve their separate needs for different constituencies and mission areas. Some parts of the program require protection from external elements, while others prefer connectivity. The building interior needs to shelter what’s going on inside while being responsive to the city on the outside. The reverse atrium inverts the idea of a courtyard building by moving the primary building massing to the center of the site, leaving open space at the periphery, then enclosing that remaining space with a performative envelope. A carefully choreographed journey to the icons supports the personal experience. Distinct experiences depending on reason for being in the building: personal journey to view icons; communal journey in the educational and creative realm; social journey through cafe, gift shop, restaurant, public plaza. The narrative of the visitor’s journey through the galleries is punctuated by moments of repose.
THE SITE
Program Allocation Major programmatic moves expand the production elements of the stated program, making the center as much about the process of iconography creation, preservation and restoration as it is about viewing the icons. Three major program elements underscore the key dualities of the building-user experience by connecting and overlapping key areas according to the journey of the unique user. Reverse Atrium The initial organizing scheme is a reversal of a typical atrium building. The void instead moves to the edges of the site, defined by an exterior envelope, creating expansive public spaces with the heart of the museum at the center.
The structural concept is a rigid tabletop supported by large legs that expands to include shelving. Steel diagrid boxes form the two levitating tabletops with reinforced concrete cores and columns serving as vertical support. Secondary structure includes steel bracing beams to increase rigidity between boxes, and the outer envelope steel trigrid which supports itself and provides additional lateral bracing.
The envelope performs in several ways: visibly building out the lot to contribute to the urban edge, enclosing the “outdoor� program elements and creating a winter garden the size of the site, maximizing opportunities for daylighting and natural ventilation for building zones with less-rigid environmental control needs, creating large surfaces for photovoltaic placement, filtering out noise from traffic and the city, fluidly controlling views and points of visible connection into the building, and establishing a structural exoskeleton that resists lateral forces for the building. The glass layer consists of 5x8.67 ft. corrugated panels that adhere to a rectangular mullion system and are bolted to the trigrid skeleton. The slumping process creates additional structural stability in the glass itself, making large spans and tall elevations possible with system of fine elements.
The conceptual duality idea extends to the environmental systems, making possible a clear distinction between the open spaces enclosed by only the exterior envelope and the cloistered spaces with greater ECS needs. Passive systems are regulated by the building envelope, which allows air intake at the bottom and utilizes solar energy for heat and energy capture. The interior building massing creates airflow through the larger open rooms.
The hanging garden serves as a reprieve from the gallery and creative spaces, but also connects the two.
The corrugated glass in the envelope diffuses and softens direct sunlight, but also enhances interior lighting on rainy and cloudy Portland days.
Adam Oswald aoswald@uoregon.edu 503.724.8991
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