Stan Allen New Maribor Art Gallery Maribor, Slovenia, 2010
analyzed by Student Moritz Riedl
01 4
0
20
50
100
200
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
Stan Allen New Maribor Art Gallery Maribor, Slovenia, 2010
architects Stan Allen Architects location Maribor, Slovenia project type competition because Maribor being the european capital of culture in 2012 competition year 2010
Architect: Stan Allen is an american architect which has worked and learned at Richard Meier and Rafael Moneo in the 1990‘s. Since then, he worked in collaborations, also opened his own office in New York City and thaught in different universities in the United States. Stan Allen‘s projects stand for an artistic approach in designing. Architect to Project: The entry for the New Maribor Art Gallery competition is apparently distinguished into two parts. The concept of synthesizing two completely different spatial systems is totally negotiated in this project. At ground level a coherent public space is located, which connects the river Drava with adjacent places to not disturb but more to embed the fluid urban fabric. Above, a modulated gallery complex, whose scale is informed by the historical urban context, is situated as a counterpart to the public space. This specific scale is also visible on the roofline, which both lets the building stand for its own and also integrates the building into the existing urban framework. This project is significant for Stan Allen’s Ouvre, which is very much informed by similar designs. His design is based on simple geometrical volumes, which are cut and clustered together, to create a consistent design. However, this entry was one of the first designs in that direction by him. So maybe this project has been an initializer for his way of designing. Project to Ground: The context of the project is a competition for a new art gallery in Maribor, which should be completed 2012, when Maribor held the title of ‚European Capital of Culture‘. Therefore the new building should become both the leading center of contemporary art and creativity and also a place for everybody. Besides the gallery space an architectural center, a children’s museum, a center for creative industries and a cafe should be planned, as well as a rejuvenation of the Drava banks. Stan Allen uses the qualities of the water-nearness of the plot to create a coherent public place, which is not only relevant during the time as ‚European Capital of Culture‘, but also a relevant centre of culture and leisure over decades. In addition, the site is located at a very unique spot of the city of Maribor, which is in a way the border between historical center and a new hub which contains both industrial and residential buildings. That is the perfect place for an cultural center, which has the ability to connect historical and contemporary.
Fig. 01 site plan
Plan: The plan, and therefore also the outline of the building look very complex. But if you break it down to the single parts it is just a repetition of pentagonal cylinders, which
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
5
get treated differently. The pentagonal shaped modules were used on the one hand because of the larger wall space to put exhibition objects onto and on the other hand also to get an irregular perimeter of the whole building and therefore the negative space on the public place around the building. Through putting the elements together, voids emerge in between the parts and let light fall into the building and especially the ground floor, or are used both as inner courtyards for the gallery and connections between the different levels. The ground floor consists of columns in the center of each module which branch into a tree like structure at the ceiling. This structure bears the upper two levels which hold the exhibition in it. The concept for the exhibition also profits of the pentagonal module system. Because of the modules the curator has all flexibilities to generate different exhibition circuits. He can either put multiple modules together or keep them distinguished. It is also possible to watch the exhibition from different perspectives because of the visibility connection of the different levels, as mentioned before.
Fig. 02 panorama, www.archdaily.com. This is the main visualization for the entry of Stan Allen, showing the promising location at the Drava banks.
Section: In Section you can see the clear distinction between the levels. The building is treated completely different. You have a parking level, the ground level with its public facilities and the upper levels for gallery purposes. In these levels the complexity of the building is already visible in the silhouette of the building, which mimics the historical roofline of Maribor in an abstract but also recognizable way.
Urban analysis Whole to whole: In relation to the whole city, the building is situated in a very dynamic area. As already mentioned, it is kind of border between the historical urban center and a contemporary industrial and residential area. The building is therefore the facility to both combine past and future and also to integrate art and creativity into everyone‘s life. The building also opens up to the Drava, to maybe rejuvenate the banks for leisure purposes and integrate them also into this new center. Whole to part: Taking a closer look at the historic center of Maribor some things are outstanding. Especially the roofline of the buildings is really remarkable. This special roofline is created due to small plots and a high density. These aspects, the streets full of nooks and crannies and also the steep pitched roofs lead to a unique silhouette. These principles were used as design concept for the New Maribor Art Gallery and therefore the whole building relates to the historic part of the city, to create a coherent urban fabric. Part to whole: All the parts of the building which consist of the gallery complex and the ground floor all represent different urban concepts. As mentioned, the whole building mimics the historical urban center and therefore the gallery part is the historical center of the building. The structural modules are just ornament and the ground floor is
6
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
02
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
7
03
Fig. 03 competition model, www.stanallenarchitect.com. Fig. 04 collage, www.archdaily.com. 8
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
04
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
9
05
Fig. 05 visualization, www.archdaily.com. Fig. 06 interior visualization, www.archdaily.com. 10
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
06
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
11
0 2 4
8
20
07
Fig. 07 ground plan, www.archdaily.com Fig. 08 gallery plan, www.archdaily.com 12
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
0 2 4
8
20
08
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
13
0 2 4
8
20
09 14
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
10
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
15
the public space of the building. Different plazas are created and articulated with the furniture as kind of the border of the plaza. Part to part: The gallery part, the part of the building which behaves as the historical urban center is built up from one certain combination, which is repeated through out the whole building. The combination generates kind of a inner courtyard surrounded by walls and terraces. In this combination the courtyard behaves like an alley which connects the different plazas, or so called terraces.
Fig. 09 section, www.archdaily.com Fig. 10 visualization, www.archdaily.com Fig. 11 axonometric view. whole to whole
Recombination The recombination of the project is an approach of creating a building out of courtyards and terraces, out of alleys and plazas. The new building is a whole historical urban center in its own. Built up by many different interior and exterior plazas, the border between both inside and outside gets blurry. All the plazas have relation in visibility with winding alleys and also with other plazas, which lets you circulate through the building in a coherent way. In relation to the original project, the number of levels was increased to test if the design concept is possible to achieve also with more floors. Through this process, a new and even more complex assembly was created.
16
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
11 ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
17
12
Fig. 12 Maribor urban center, www.wikipedia.org. Fig. 13 axonometric view. whole to part 18
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
13 ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
19
14 20
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
15
Fig. 14 axonometric explosion. part to whole. Fig. 15 axonometric view. part to part. ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
21
Fig. 16 axonometric view. recombination. 22
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
Fig. 17 top view. recombination. ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
23
Fig. 18-19 elevation. recombination. 24
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
Fig. 20-21 elevation. recombination. ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
25
26
Project: New Maribor Art Gallery / Student: Moritz Riedl
ioud / urban design exercise spring 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture
27
This report is part of the urban design exercise 2018: The City as an Element of Architecture taught by Daniel Koehler with Jordi Vivaldi Piera Produced May 2018 This research report is for educational purpose only. Institut of Urban Design University of Innsbruck Technikerstrasse 13 A-6020 Innsbruck TEL.:++43 512 507 6961