The Soap Factory project is a design proposal that challenges traditional approach to museum design. The proposal prescribes spaces that are shaped by human activity and movement, and art collections that engages the public and curated by them.

SITE:
Existing 48,000 SF early 1900s brick building on a 185’ by 385’ site.
This is sited in the East Bank Mill district by the St Anthony Falls in Minneapolis.

PROGRAM
The program for the Soap Factory called for 12,000 SF gallery space, 2000 SF library, 6000 SF Theater, 4800 SF restaurant, 10,000 SF special event, and 16,300 SF bookstore. Along with other programs these are to be added to the existing 48,000 SF to total 148,000 SF.

DESIGN APPROACH
The design proposes a  strategy to make incursions at bus stops and pedestrian paths. These would serve as an urban extrusion that flows into the building and continues through the building’s  network of circulation.
The building’s program is organized into blocks that house individual programs. These are bounded by a series of parallel structural planes and the two are spaced in series along the site.
The void, termed as interstitial spaces acts as transformative thresholds filled with light and adds to a network of circulation.
This play between mass and void is the parti that organizes the entire structure and unifies an otherwise complex program.