This project challenges the traditional way of designing by creating spaces with a formal language of scooping. Ovoids are extracted from a solid mass, spaces with a curvilinear language are thus formed with no traditional definition of floor and wall. On the interior, the ovoids pushing against each other and formed an organic membrane that’s defining the boundaries of the spaces, registering the spatial qualities of different programs. The ovoids on the perimeter of the mass also create different relationship between the mass and the exterior. They result in an alternative viewing angle and circulation path, self-shading cave spaces on the facade and registering inner spaces inside the building. Programs are planned with three major spaces (a lecture hall, gallery, and a black box theater) located closer to the center of the mass while smaller pockets of related public and back-of-house programs are distributed along the perimeter, introducing light and air in while also creating a revealing moment of what’s going on inside.
The thermal strategy for this building is rather traditional. The ovoids create different poche spaces which can act as thermal mass for the major event spaces. There are four cores in this building, and each one has its own series of cutouts on the floor plate, creating four atriums within the mass. These atriums allow air movement from throughout the building, and also create continuous vertical shaft spaces for the ducts.
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