Akron Art Museum | Coop Himmelb(l)au

The museum of the future is a three-dimensional sign in the city which exhibits the content of our visual world. Museums are no longer only exhibition spaces to display diverse forms of digital and analog visual information, but they also function as spaces that cater to urban experiences. This means that art should be able to flow out of the building and the city should be able to flow inside. This zone becomes a hybrid space where various types of people can meet and unexpected events can occur. Rather than going to the museum simply to look at art, visitors are encouraged to engage in artistic discourse, attend music and arts festivals, or to simply pass the time until an appointment. Our design is therefore an urban connector as well as a destination point. The building is broken up into 3 parts: the Crystal, the Gallery Box, and the Roof Cloud. The Crystal serves as the main entry and operates as an orientation and connection space serving both the new and old buildings. It is a grand, flexible space that can also be used for banquets, arts festivals, and events hosted by outside organizations. The traditional idea of a banquet hall as an enclosed isolated event space dissolves away into a visible, public experience. The energy necessary for lighting, heating and cooling the Crystal is minimized by strategic building massing and extensive daylighting. The mass and location of the Gallery Box and High Roof protect the southern oriented Crystal glazing from direct sunlight. At the same time the reflectivity of the façade material raises natural light levels in the Crystal and reduces the need to power artificial light sources. The Crystal utilizes microclimate zones as a heating and cooling concept. These different zones are determined by analyzing the type and anticipated length of occupancy in various areas of the crystal and are conditioned through optimization of active and passive means. By eliminating the need to condition the entire air volume in the Crystal, and by focusing the energy used to condition the space in the areas where people are located, operating costs and energy use are significantly reduced. The interior of the Gallery Box is an expansive space which has very few columns and is therefore extremely flexible for varying exhibition requirements. A large freight elevator brings oversized works to and from the storage areas and serves as a link between the loading dock and Gallery Box. Natural light is eliminated in the galleries so that it can be strictly controlled and damage from sunlight can be eliminated. The floors of the Gallery Box and Crystal are composed of poured in place concrete slabs with water filled tubes that supply heating and cooling by changing temperature state of the massive floor slab. This radiant floor system is more efficient than simple forced air systems because it uses the mass of the concrete as a storage device which delivers a stable continuous source of heating and cooling. Forced air systems are much less efficient than radiant systems because of the extra work required by the system when occupancy loads suddenly change and create a far higher burden of use of non-renewable resources. The Roof Cloud, which hovers above the building, creates a blurred envelope for the museum because of its sheer mass and materiality. It encloses interior space, provides shade for exterior spaces, and operates as a horizontal landmark in the city. [IT] La nuova struttura si compone di tre elementi: un atrio in vetro denominato “Crystal”, l’area espositiva “Gallery Box” ed il “Roof Cloud”, una copertura che si sviluppa a sbalzo oltre l’edificio. L’atrio vetrato fungerà da ingresso principale e da punto di connessione tra i diversi spazi della vecchia e della nuova struttura. Si tratta di un ampio spazio la cui flessibilità consentirà di ospitare all’interno ricevimenti, eventi e manifestazioni artistiche. Congedata l’idea tradizionale di una sala ricevimento come luogo chiuso ed isolato, i progettisti viennesi hanno realizzato un luogo visibile ed accessibile al pubblico. Il rivestimento vetrato consente la massima illuminazione naturale degli spazi interni, mentre il tetto a sbalzo protegge la facciata esposta a sud dai raggi diretti del sole. La Gallery Box si configura come ampio spazio con pochi pilastri e come tale estremamente flessibile a disposizioni all’interno sempre differenti. La pavimentazione dell’atrio e della galleria è realizzata in lastre di cemento dotate di tubi riempiti di acqua che contribuiscono al raffreddamento e al riscaldamento della struttura. La copertura, che si sviluppa a sbalzo oltre la pianta dell’edificio, crea un involucro che quasi nasconde il volume del museo. Oltre a coprire gli spazi interni e ad assicurare zone d’ombra all’esterno, il Roof Cloud si configura come nuovo landmark della città. Executive Architect: Westlake, Reed, Leskosky, Cleveland, Ohio Partner in Charge: Ron Reed Project Director: Rich Keilmann Structural Engineering: B+G Ingenieure, Bollinger und Grohmann GmbH, Frankfurt, Germany De Simone Consulting Engineers, San Francisco, CA, USA Project Associate: Derrick Roorda Mechanical Engineering: IBE Consulting Engineers, Los Angeles, USA Acoustical Engineering: Arup Acoustics, New York, USA Lighting Design: George Sexton Associates, Washington DC, USA Building height (existing) Museum: 55 feet - 16.75 meters Building height New Building : Gallery Box: 37 feet - 11.25 meters High Roof: 57 feet - 17.5 meters Crystal: 57 feet - 17.5 meters Max. Building length: Gallery Box: 250 feet - 76 meters Max. Building width: Gallery Box: 125 feet - 38 meters Gallery Box with HVAC/Mechanical: 200 feet - 61 meters Min. Building width: Gallery Box: 60 feet - 18.25 meters