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Shigeru Ban’s new Aspen Art Museum

Hello, together with the Aspen Art Museum I have prepared a coverage on their new home, opened this Summer in Aspen, CO. http://www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/shigeru-bans-new-aspen-art-museum/
The building, quite new but already widely known, is the first design completed in the US by Shigeru Ban, who recently won the 2014 Pritzker Prize.


I found this museum (actually bigger than it seems, it's 33,000 sq.f) a very interesting design, it looks quite simple but when you go further a first look, it is actually very profound IMHO. Sinc ethe article is quite long, I post here some images. 

Best!
Riccardo

 

 
Oct 16, 14 11:12 am
Larchinect

It's a nice white box. I like it, but it doesn't seem to say much about its context. The locals are literally climbing the walls with outrage..

Oct 18, 14 2:05 am  · 
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Well, actually Ban tried to create a set of visual relationships from inside the building towards the mountains as well as to use materials like (technical) wood. Nevertheless I agree with you, at least the fact he is Japanese is clearly visible in the design.

Oct 18, 14 3:43 am  · 
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archanonymous

Fuck the locals. Aspen is one of the most beautiful places in Colorado, but the locals ( rich and poor alike) are the most insular, self- serving assholes you could ever have the misfortune of meeting. They don't even deserve this, which is probably most of the problem.

Oct 18, 14 9:55 am  · 
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Larchinect

Ehh, my experience is that it's really a very mixed bag with the locals, which is what you'd expect from a world wide destination. The folks that tend to have the loudest voices however could be characterized as arch anonymous does. There's a good portion of ignorance from two factions-- those grasping on to the 70's because that's when they landed in the valley with mommy and daddy's trust fund, and those with a political agenda. Those under 40 tend to just not care about anything, most of them will live there for less than a few seasons anyway. its a strange place, sort of a big little city that stretches the length of the valley. People are extremely self interested, but they'll get behind an idea, even kick in money if you can rally the vocals.

i like the building on its own, and I've read the narratives about the connection from the building to mountain and I get it, but it's very subtle. I might even say aspen didn't get bans full attention on this one which is unfortunate because one group had to fight city hall to get it built instead of another rendition of the mining era, mountain rustic deal. But, the building really doesn't resolve well with the street and adjacent buildings. One side leaves about ten feet of exposed, painted cmu for the entire heigh of the building. Just a weird detail that glares as a major oversight in my view.

Oct 18, 14 1:27 pm  · 
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would love to see the CMU wall. sounds cool.

i dont see the japanese-ness in the design. could just as easily be swiss or danish design as japanese.

Oct 18, 14 7:26 pm  · 
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Larchinect

It doesn't look intentional will. I'll try to grab a shot of it sometime.

Oct 19, 14 3:44 am  · 
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cool, larchinect.

I love architecture that doesnt take itself so seriously. would be awesome if he did it on purpose.

Oct 20, 14 10:53 am  · 
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haruki

 From the exterior it looks a lot like the Longaberger Basket Company headquarters in Newark Ohio which is the thing I most appreciate about the Ban building. If the similarity was intentional it suggests he has a great sense of humor. 

Oct 20, 14 4:40 pm  · 
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TIQM

Boy... I look at that building, and it just screams "Aspen, CO" to me.

Oct 20, 14 8:09 pm  · 
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TIQM

Good luck with that woven wood lattice after a couple of wicked Colorado winters, and some freeze-thaw. 

Oct 20, 14 8:11 pm  · 
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midlander

the spaceframe is interesting - really seems like a japanese interpretation of structure. are those curved glu-lam diagonals? any detail of how it's jointed?

Oct 20, 14 11:50 pm  · 
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Carrera

EKE, funny thing about starchitects - that weave could rot off that building and nothing would become of it - off scot-free, if it were you or me we'd end up in a penal colony somewhere for the infraction.

Oct 21, 14 7:49 am  · 
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archanonymous

Ban builds in many cold climates and his buildings have all held up. Japan is just as snowy as Aspen in many places. The facade weave feels like it is plastic or silicone impregnated.

Oct 21, 14 9:26 am  · 
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Carrera

Interesting topic though – material selection. Just wondering about the choices I see lately, here included. I got called a lot to investigate material failures and almost all the time someone was trying something new. Wonder if Ban has seen this used somewhere and/or what testing was involved. I’ve seen accelerated weathering testing done, wonder….if he hasn’t – didn’t, I may be getting a call.

Oct 21, 14 9:50 am  · 
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midlander

just had a presentation by a rep for the supplier of the "wood weave" material proderma.

it's not real wood, its an exterior grade phenolic laminate. which i suppose has some real wood in it, plus paper binding.

Oct 21, 14 10:34 am  · 
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Carrera

Midlander, well that's good news - now there is someone with deep pockets to go after.

Oct 21, 14 10:50 am  · 
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+++Carrera.  Except you know their manufacturer's warranty is written to juuuuuust barely slide past any actual warranty claims once it starts failing, if it does.

I liked the building better when i thought the bands were steel, more like the great HdM signal box project (those are actually strips of copper):

That said I do think the building is lovely.  The proportions are really nice, and the interior environment and sense of translucency and visual vibration is great.

Oct 21, 14 12:02 pm  · 
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Volunteer

Plastic weaving masquerading as wood? Whatever else would you use in the Rocky Mountains?

Oct 21, 14 6:00 pm  · 
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sometimes i get the impression it would be better if we only built walmarts everywhere. except someone would make it red and there would be complaints from the flock that the redness is bullshit from some ego-laden star wannabe who should be shot for not being mediocre like the rest of us.

Leaders take some risks for sure. so do their clients.

That said, those same leaders, at least in our business, do understand construction quite well. I only know a few of these folks but they are not flighty artists without a clue by any means. It is a mistake to assume they dont think about any of the hard questions, or that they dont have staff to do it. They are at least as competent as anyone you know. Probably quite a bit more because they have a LOT of experience doing very difficult things that most of us dont get a chance to even think about.

Oct 21, 14 8:42 pm  · 
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Volunteer

I am trying to think what they could replace the plastic weaving with when it goes to Jesus in about three years.

Oct 21, 14 10:09 pm  · 
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midlander

I'm with Will on this. It's plastic laminate - someday it'll need to be replaced. So does vinyl siding, or brick veneer, or terracotta, or stone. Even concrete eventually needs resurfacing in an environment like this.

At least this design accommodates replacement easily - it's just a screen. Nothing bad happens if it deteriorates and needs replacement, unlike say traditional masonry. Seems like responsible design to me. The goal wasn't to give the museum the world's cheapest no-maintenance building. I'm sure the good people of Aspen can afford it.

Oct 21, 14 11:06 pm  · 
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Volunteer

As part if the opening exhibits three large turtles were to roam around the building with iPads strapped to their backs showing slide-shows of Colorado. Not sure who was to clean up the turtle poo. When it was pointed out that another artist had taped flashlights to thirty turtles back in 1965 the exercise was scrapped. (No turtles were harmed in the typing of this note)

Oct 22, 14 8:44 am  · 
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subgenius

horrible building design. Detailing is cliche office park. The materials will not weather well and in 10 years the building will look like a high school from the 1960s that was best improved by adding acoustic tile ceiling and 10 layers of paint.

This building is one step away from the Emperor wearing no clothes.

China is on the right track - "No more weird buildings".

http://www.archdaily.com/559456/why-china-s-president-says-no-more-weird-buildings/

"Mr Xi expressed his views that art should serve the people and be morally inspiring..."

This is not a call for the homogenization of all things architectural, but rather a reminder that architecture should be measured.

Oct 22, 14 9:51 am  · 
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Larchinect

Volunteer, you need to check your facts. The turtle exhibit displayed for several weeks before being discontinued for various reasons.

Oct 22, 14 2:41 pm  · 
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Volunteer

My doctoral thesis was on "Live Turtles Use in Avant Guard Art Installations by Really Trendy Artists Since the Early 1950s" so I stand by my turtle scholarship. It's hard to be trendy and original in flyover country, even in rich ghettos like Aspen. There is nothing worse than being outed as a follower when you are trying so hard to be a leader. Prize goes to the 30 turtles with the flashlights.

Oct 22, 14 4:36 pm  · 
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archanonymous

Subgenius, that is complete and utter bullshit. I submit one L. Kahn as my evidence.

"A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable."

Oct 22, 14 4:51 pm  · 
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Larchinect

there is an airport in aspen.

Oct 22, 14 10:02 pm  · 
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mightyaa

The local thing is always an issue in a tourist town.  And in Aspen, that's part of why it's like it is.  They've severely limited growth and are very picky about what is built.  So you don't find much new 'mediocre' architecture.  I honestly appreciate how it works up there because the buildings usually end up feeling like they have context and character of the town, and the leaders also are smart and savy enough that they aren't forcing log cabin, turn of the century looking crap, or like Vail & Breckenridge, some bastard Bavarian Alp type style that doesn't fit into Colorado.  You can't get by with cookie cutter branded, suburban mediocre non-offensive stuff  There are those in Aspen, but that was leftovers from the growth in the '80's. 

If I remember right, the first site for this museum was rejected during the review process by the town as appropriate (the context of the impact plays a part).  Also if I remember right, the offense has more to do with 'outsiders' and 'transient' residents cutting out the ones who live there and leading the show actually stepping on toes to ram it through.  In the mountains, just because you have a winter home there, doesn't make you local: You are still considered 'tourists'. 

Oct 23, 14 2:04 pm  · 
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I thought Holland Cotter spoke to the underlying forces quite well in her review/critique...

"A kunsthalle like the Aspen Art Museum, an institution somewhere between a museum and alternative space, should make room for artists closer to home, and in so doing help break up the longstanding art-center stranglehold...Still, whether there are megabucks or not, what’s needed first is the will to believe, the will to treat local — what’s here — as big league instead of perpetuating the myth that innovative, important and valuable can emerge only from somewhere else"

Oct 23, 14 5:27 pm  · 
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Larchinect

Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call aspen flyover land or characterize it as lacking culture or creativity. The thing that makes aspen unique is the culture it draws while remaining a small, compact mountain town..might ya stated it well. The museum has made a point of pretty extensive civic engagement locally, including showing local work...believe me there is no shortage of paintings of aspen groves, you just won't find any in the museum.

Oct 23, 14 11:00 pm  · 
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x-jla

I really want to like this because I really like Ban, but It just seems to lack something. Cohesiveness maybe?  His work typically has a strong expression of physics that I love...somewhat there on the interior...the exterior of the building is missing it....the interior and exterior are too easily separable...they don't seem integral as they usually are in his other works.

Oct 24, 14 12:37 am  · 
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OneLostArchitect
Where are the paper tubes?
Oct 24, 14 7:12 am  · 
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Volunteer

Aspen wants to showcase local art so they hire a Japanese architect to design a paper mâché gallery with zero context to the Rocky Mountains? For the money they could have had a contemporary museum of granite, stone, steel, and glass that related to the mountains and that would have lasted a hundred years or more.

Oct 24, 14 9:02 am  · 
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Larchinect

One lost... There are full interior walls made of paper tubes, some other stuff too..they're in there.

i guess I want to like the building too...not sure I love it.

Oct 24, 14 10:43 pm  · 
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why would stone and glass be more contextual than wood-ish and glass?

@ Nam, what does that critique even mean? Its pretty vague, basically saying I dont like it, and propping the point of view on a kind of semi-Koolhaasian statement about locality and the potential of being radically local. Its a bit meaningless, isnt it? The inference is that they will know it when they like it, but until then bugger off...

The actual REM made an interesting point about critical regionalism in an interview related to the modernism project - that he agrees with the stance of Frampton but sees it is fundamentally flawed because local is not what it used to be, so the entire idea is a fail. He seems to see it as a bit of a tragedy that could not be avoided and needs a different approach to resolve if we are serious.

If the building is flawed I would look as much to the general approach to urbanism in america than to the failures of Ban as a designer. It can only be an object. In which case, the building can only be judged with reference to itself. For context, the idea that the area is about mountains and not about modernity seems strange. It would only make sense if the local culture was defined by hobbits who carved homes out of the living rock and drove  horses around town instead of cars.

Is the critique more properly that he is not aspirational enough?

Oct 25, 14 4:29 am  · 
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x-jla

Rem's correct that "local is not what it used to be" but his "global" world is being created consequently by outside forces.  The local can/must also be created/preserved by force.  I disagree with this idea that the "global" is a natural phase of "progress."  This idea of linear progress is flawed.  There is no "progress" only change. Progress is internal.  Progress happens in the mind and heart of the individual.  To accept globalization as change is one thing...change is not destiny...change can be counterbalanced to preserve certain things that enrich place...the problem is that when we accept globalization as being inevitable, natural, destiny...we essentially surrender to a false religion of progress.  

Oct 25, 14 12:06 pm  · 
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The good thing about this building is that it's NOT some melted parametric or crashed alien ship or giant vulva/phallus.The bad thing about it is that it has no relationship to the local environment either functionally or aesthetically: it's a generic design that could be placed anywhere. Which in general seems to be the inevitable result of starchitecture and globalization.

The really important things about the building - it's functionality in regard to human factors, traffic flow, museum functions, sustainability, etc. - are all out of reach of any discussion among architects and critics who are only concerned with subjective personal aesthetics. 

Oct 25, 14 12:49 pm  · 
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Volunteer

"The idea that the area (Aspen) is about mountains and not about modernity seems strange".

Really? People go to Aspen because of the mountains? Who knew? In any event, this building will not be about modernity for long. In fact this building will not be for long.

Oct 25, 14 2:33 pm  · 
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Larchinect

There's actually a lot more to a place than it's geography, or topography in this case. People come to aspen nowadays perhaps less for the mountains and more for the energy, culture, perpetual wealth and all that goes along with that, though it all has a basis in the mountain setting, mining, and ranching ultimately.

Oct 25, 14 3:29 pm  · 
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Volunteer

There is nothing perpetual about the ephemeral wealth of the typical Aspenite. As for appropriateness to the site Voorsanger Architects, who created the nearby Wildcat Ridge residence could have created a masterful art gallery, appropriate to the site and that would have lasted for the ages. You would have had people lined up around the block to get in. Hell, for $75 million you could have purchased the Wildcat Ridge estate and moved it to downtown Aspen and have had about €$30 million left over. Instead you have a $75 million dollar pile of turtle poop. Enjoy.

Oct 25, 14 3:44 pm  · 
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chatter of clouds

jla-x, the design is very cohesive...did you not think that perhaps it is the extent of its seeming cohesion that bothers you (perhaps), rather than the lack thereof?

I think this is the kind of project that is difficult to judge from pictures. the visual allure of the envelope and its layering (you can perceive through it the solid inner structures that further animate the screen)  give it more complexity.

 

  

Oct 25, 14 3:55 pm  · 
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chatter of clouds

It begs the question of how much are we judging the building on the basis of those-maybe self betraying-  very clear very obvious reductive pictures of the quite powerful (because seemingly homogeneous and expansive, on some sides) screen.

Oct 25, 14 3:58 pm  · 
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Larchinect

That second photo kind of catches that three storey blank wall that when standing next to it seems like a clear schism between the bldg and the rest of the city--bear in mind the two buildings to the right in that picture were redeveloped at the same time. They are very nice, very well designed with softer, local materials--they are fabric. 

i wonder if the big white cmu wall was really intentional? It seems like I'm the only one who cares, but I think it would do wonders for public perception of scale and context if they reconciled the street wall somehow, gave a nod to the neighboring buildings.

Oct 25, 14 7:15 pm  · 
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Larchinect

I've spent some time in the building-- I would say the two most impressive elements would be the roof terrace ( though there is some question as to how it will function in winter) and the grand staircase that drops all three storeys, visible in the first pic of the model above. 

Oct 25, 14 7:19 pm  · 
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chatter of clouds

Larchinect, that blank wall also was in the back of my mind when I saw that picture...being that I dont know the context, its interesting what you have to say. Do you have pictures of the surrounding buildings and how the building fits in? More on the blank wall, having recently been reading Moneo on Stirling ( Theoretical Anxiety and Strategy in the work of Eight Architects) , he points out the failure of Stirling's Queen's College when it comes to the resultant blank side walls (a deliberate reference to of the design rationale in my opinion and not an oversight or a mere consequence..even though, as a conequence, it is visually unengaging.)

Oct 25, 14 7:41 pm  · 
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Larchinect

I don't off hand but can say that it is much more imposing in person. It' should also be considered that visitors tend to park and walk from that side..the stark white block wall is the first thing they see juxtaposing the adjacent, more quaint two storey stepped facades it abuts. 

Oct 25, 14 8:50 pm  · 
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Volunteer

The Wildcat Ridge residence can be seen at 'voorsanger.com/recent_projects/#2'. Oddly enough the house seems to have more art work than the museum. Voorsanger gives credit to Masayuki Sono for being the chief designer. Go figure.

Oct 26, 14 2:32 pm  · 
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@Will i actually like this project by Ban.

I suppose when i posted the Cotter link i was more agreeing with her criticism / point re: how what was presumably/ostensibly meant to be a local museum, turned to a starchitect and global (ly recognized) artists for cache/brand recognition etc, as emblematic of larger trends/problems in modern art market today.

ie; - "The original Aspen Art Museum opened in 1979 in a one-gallery space in a repurposed hydroelectric station. For years most of the exhibitions were of local artists, including student shows. Grassroots was the word for it...My question is, why settle for being a New York-Los Angeles outpost? Why not take advantage of the excitements that regional consciousness can offer"

Oct 28, 14 7:50 pm  · 
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@nam, I can understand that point. My first exhibitions as a painter in my teens were at community galleries. They were  crazy places usually, recycled supermarkets and shed like buildings that only make sense on the Canadian prairie. They were fantastic and horrible. Maybe ban has done the same thing. Except the art is better. 

That blank wall doesn't bother me. It looks like a lot of party walls in cities big and small to be honest. He might have done it in brick perhaps but it would not have suited his own building. As a  young tokyoite I would absolutely open up the facade to the neighbor. Ban isn't that kind of architect, he's still old school (probably the result if his all American education). It looks like the result of building code more than design  really. If he were really contextual it should have some kind of sign on it shouldn't it?

Oct 29, 14 6:44 pm  · 
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