Phase 03: the exhibition

studio 08 - triplicate: hejduk at neue nationgalerie

ABPL90143 MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF DESIGN, MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE

Sloth Balconies

The Sloth Balconies are an insertion of an autonomous space, made from a series of occupiable planes between the roof and the ceiling of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Deviating from the horizontal datum of the floating roof, extending the ceiling creates a suspended network of observational areas that overlooks the city and the temple of the museum.

The upper ground floor is a purely public space, devoid of art. The exhibition on display is the museum. The museum as art and the visitor as an active member in its exhibit.

Upper ground floor plan — *Upper Ground Floor Plan*

The open and exposed density of object 2 in phase 1 translates into a series of open spaces and corridors with a prescribed circulation pattern that maneuvers in and out of the original facade, acting as a thickening of the building’s sides reinforced by extending the glazing to the edge of the roof. The floating plane platforms are created from four repeating modules: stairway, right-angled corridor, straight corridor, and occupiable plane. Placing these four modules in combination allows for planes of different scales to be created with circulation between them. The modules are arranged at four different heights, essentially creating four levels, a terrain of hills and valleys overlooking the landscape of the city. Playing off the interiority and exteriority of the museum, to traverse the network of floating planes, one must weave in and out of the facade constantly, existing both outside and inside the museum.

*Ceiling Module Plan and Section Diagram*

*Ceiling Module Arrangement Plan Diagram*

The design encourages visitors to become part of the museum. It is about adjusting the view of public space from free space to occupiable space, where the platforms reference Hejduk’s ideas on multiplicity and designing within the confines of a grid to create allowances for program and movement of people.

Where the basement and temple levels highlight the experience of viewing art against the backdrop of the city, the ceiling void is an experience of the museum’s building, where visitors exist among the services; the veins, and organs of the museum body.

The entries are present on the sides of the museum, thickening the façade walls, extending to the ceiling line of the floating plane. Circulation on this level works in a multi-directional function, encouraging visitors to make their own explorative journey through the terrain.

Apparatus 1: Sloth Balconies — Apparatus 1: *Sloth Balconies*

View from ceiling platform into ceiling-roof void — *View into ceiling-roof void*

The Permanent Collection

The permanent collection is located on the lower-ground floor of the museum and is composed entirely of sculptures. It extends the sculpture garden internally, reflecting its design in plan across the four points where the large concrete columns are exposed. The outline of the garden beds of the sculpture garden is used as a guide for the location of sculptures in combination with the location of the revealed concrete columns which in themselves are architectural sculptures. These two defining rules formulate the arrangement of exhibits across the lower-ground floor of the museum’s exhibition spaces.

Wayfinding: *Lower Ground Floor Permanent Exhibition*

Facade as Display

Facade as Display is a glass display cabinet of suspended platforms that houses the Faces of the Day exhibition of the permanent collection in the lower-ground floor.

It replicates the language of the ceiling void level where modules are suspended from the horizontal datum of the roof to create spatial tension.

The positioning of the cabinet is informed by a reflection of the sculpture garden’s plan, taking on the location of the pool. Its reflectivity is mimicked in the glass casing and internal mirror finishes that visually expand the internal space and allows visitors to view both the front and back of the sculptures.

The platform scale and arrangement is defined by the size of the ceiling tiles, which have been removed.

column as display

Column as Display is a continuation of Facade as Display, extending the collection into the foyer of the lower-ground level.

It is an extension of Column as Sculpture where the architecture of the column acted as sculpture, which has now been conceived as a display case in which sculpture is held. It is an integration of art into architecture.

*Column as Display: Faces of the Day, Modes of Abstraction*

attractor nodes

Attractor Nodes is a reveal of Column as Sculpture in the lower ground floor. The columns are exposed, surrounding walls removed, creating a vortex of energy, drawing surrounding elements of the museum architecture and its art into itself.

The placement of the sculptures in plan is arranged to the layout of the sculpture garden reflected, landing in the corners of what are the garden beds in the sculpture garden.

In the columns’ proximity, the ceiling panels, sculptures and lights are swept towards the column. The point of attraction occurs at the location where Mies and Hejduk interact: the base of the concrete capital and the beginning of the curvilinear metal plate. The ceiling panels are drawn to that height breaking from the horizontal datum.

The plinths of the sculptures from the Slivers of the City exhibition react in a juxtaposing manner where sculptures positioned closer to the column are lower in height, following the ceiling heights consequential of the column’s magnetism.