MOCA Cleveland | Farshid Moussavi Architecture

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland MOCA Cleveland is a 34,000 ft2 non-collecting contemporary art museum designed to serve as a catalyst for creativ¬ity and growth in a cosmopolitan Cleveland neighborhood, which is home to one of the country’s largest concentrations of cultural, educational and medical institutions. Because MOCA is a non-collecting institution – one of the relatively few such contemporary art museums in the country – its new building does not need to accommodate collection galleries. Flexibility is key to enable the museum to display works in a great variety of media and genres. The four-story building, which anchors the Uptown district, liberates space for a plaza and rises 60 feet from a hexagonal base to a square top, where the primary exhibition space is located. All four floors contain areas for either exhibitions or public programs. Located on the corner of its triangular site, the building is designed with entrances on all its sides to al¬low it to open along its entire perimeter and be used in many different ways. Clad primarily in mirror-finish black stainless steel, the building envelope reflects its urban surroundings, changing in ap¬pearance with differences in light and weather. Three of the building’s six facets, one of them clad in transparent glass, flank a public plaza which is to serve as a public gathering place and to link MOCA to Uptown attractions and amenities, including the expanded Cleveland Institute of Art, and new commercial space and residential units. Upon entering the building, visitors will find themselves in an atrium where they can see the dynamic shape and structure of the building as it rises. This space leads to MOCA’s lobby, café and shop, and to a double-height multi-purpose room for public programs and events. From there, visitors may take MOCA’s grand staircase, a dominant architectural feature of the building, to the upper floors. On the top floor the 6,000-square-foot gallery space has no fixed dividing walls, allow¬ing for a variety of configurations. This floor also contains a gallery designed for new media work and a Lounge, which overlooks the plaza and Uptown. Construction budget: $18.7 million Ita Il sito destinato ad accogliere il nuovo museo presenta una irregolare geometria triangolare. La risposta dello studio FOA è consistita nella progettazione di una struttura dalla base esagonale che si sviluppa in altezza cambiando forma in maniera graduale, e pressoché impercettibile, a ciascun piano, fino a chiudersi in una copertura quadrata. Ne risulta una dinamica architettura che presenta sei sfaccettature geometriche, alcune dalla superficie piana, altre inclinate, la cui combinazione dà vita ad una geometria astratta. Rivestita prevalentemente in acciaio nero lucido, la facciata del futuro MOCA rifletterà il paesaggio urbano circostante, trasformandosi continuamente a seconda della luce e del tempo nelle diverse ore del giorno e nelle diverse stagioni. L’utilizzo del vetro verniciato nero conferirà uniformità al progetto, mentre di sera le luci all’interno daranno vita ad un pattern dinamico che si alternerà alla superficie nera. L’atrio d’ingresso offrirà ai visitatori una immediata visuale del movimento dinamico della struttura man mano che si sviluppa in altezza. Questo spazio guiderà al foyer, alla caffetteria, ai negozi e ad una sala polifunzionale a doppia altezza. Di qui i visitatori potranno accedere ad una scala monumentale oppure all’ascensore che li condurrà ai piani superiori.