longcheng li Architectural history
Primary and secondary Report Dec 07 2015
Bata Shoes Museum 20th anniversary Primary Report The Bata Shoes Museum sits on the southwest corner of Bloor and St. George Streets in downtown Toronto. From the right corner of building is glass display windows on the ground level, surrounded by limestone walls making it more steady. There is a small terrace on the third floor with overlap wall. As I approach the front entrance I noticed the pyramids glass entrance with steel beams support. The left side of entrance the ground floor is made of glass half way extend to the left side of museum. Turn to the back side of building is all concrete with beige paint and the logo for the museum “ The Bata Shoe Museum” is on the top corner. The roof remind me of a shoe box lid with a slope to the right side of the building with a big overhang roof on the front and back, the sides has a smaller overhang. There is turn around glass door at the entrance, the first thing I saw was reception and museum shop. In the lobby u can see outside through the glass wall and you can see the “floating” staircase with glass railing and a dramatic wall of prismatic glass with shoes hanging. The left side of lobby there is exhibition room with painted glass door: star turns, footprints on the world stage with access floating stairs from basement or lobby. In the exhibition room the floor is circle shape with a floating stairs in the middle. Take the wood shoe staircase from the lobby to the basement, on the right hand side there is an exhibition room: all about shoes and on the left hand side there are washrooms and coatroom. From the exhibition room with glass door you can take the stairs to the ground floor of exhibition room, then exit the room the stairs to the second floor on your left hand side. The staircase to the second floor is very grant with steel, marble tiles and glass railing. On the landing of second level you can see the beautiful staircase, lobby and outside view through the glass wall. On the left hand side there is exhibition room with glass door: beauty, identity, pride and on the right hand there is exhibition room standing tall. From second floor take stairs to the third floor. Standing at landing you can see a small staff office in front of you, behind of you can see the whole stairs, open
celling and the entire glass wall. The administration office is located at your left side. The exhibition room with glass door located on your right side.
Bata Shoes Museum 20th anniversary Secondary Report
Figure 2 the entrance of the museum
Figure 3: the staircase and glass wall
When acclaimed Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama was commissioned to create a “gem of a museum”, his response was to design one of Toronto’s most unique and innovative structures. Inspired by the idea of a shoebox, Moriyama created a five-story structure that combines state-of-the-art artefact storage and exhibit space with dynamic and inviting plays of light and texture. Its form is derived from the idea of the museum as a container. Taking this further and associating it with footwear, Raymond Moriyama stated that the building is meant to evoke an opening shoe box(1),the copper roof resembles the lid of open shoe box .the whole frame of the building are clad in a limestone which makes the building more strong from Canada winter and the building is oblong shape. the transparent main entrance allows people to glimpse right through the building from the lobby and museum shop. To the center circulation space with its cantilevered staircase of steel and glass and huge window of faceted glass set into the south wall. The floating stairs almost designed in the middle of building divided building into two parts, and each parts on the level has their specific theme. But the basement and ground floor have meaningful and important fixed theme because all the visits will start their tour from basement. East side of the building is where most of galleries and exhibition located. On the west side of stairs is where you find washroom and coatroom, reception, Museum shop and staff office, only one small exhibition room located on west side.
Figure 4 : the basement staircase
Figure 5: the third floor column
Inside the three-story building the public facilities and exhibition, conservation and research areas are organized in a simple, straightforward manner. The circulation core, dominated by a 42-foot-high glass window designed by Lutz Haufschild, is centrally located. East of it lie the exhibition galleries. To the west are the gift shop, multipurpose rooms, special exhibition areas and administrative areas. Two below-grade levels provide space for an additional gallery, shoe research and storage.(2) From the basement exhibition room is circle shape with a wood floating staircase in the middle, the staircase is use for walking and display shoes. It leads to exhibition room that kind of a mezzanine area on the ground floor. The second floor has one large square exhibition room on east side and a small exhibition room on the west side. The third floor has a large exhibition room with supported columns and a fire escape stairs on the back of the building.
Reference: Figure one ďźš the Bata Shoe Museum 2015 Retrieved from http://cateringbymario.ca/venues/batashoe-museum (1) Bata Shoe Museum. (n.d.), In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bata_Shoe_Museum (2) BSM Architecture - Bata Shoe Museum (n.d.), . Retrieved from http://www.batashoemuseum.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2015/02/BSM-Architecture1.pdf.