The Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, Taranaki in New Zealand stands as an emblem of the sculptural works and philosophy of acclaimed artist Len Lye, who was a prominent figure in the kinetic sculpture and experimental film movements throughout the 20th century. Celebrating its grand opening late last month with the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, the Centre is the culmination of a more than three-decade endeavor in building a permanent home for Lye’s archive of work. As an expansion to the Govett Brewster, the Centre is the only museum in the country that is dedicated to a single artist.

The New Plymouth District Council financed the building through an extensive government-led fundraiser and commissioned New Zealand practice Patterson Architects Associates to design the new building. Keeping their true client — Len Lye — in mind, Pattersons fused significant elements of the artist's inspirations into their design, including Maori motifs, Greek classical temples, and the manipulation of light.

A tasteful nod to the kinetic nature of Lye's work, the building's exterior is wrapped in locally manufactured mirror-finished stainless steel, which the firm refers to as "Taranaki’s ‘local stone'". As a result, the exterior's curved reflective form "reacts to its environment" throughout the day and the seasons.

'We hope the design challenges the dominance of pure modernism in contemporary thought. Classicism has been unfashionable for many decades and the Len Lye Museum seeks to extend modernist language with meaning,' the architects said. 'Creating space that is more lucid, triumph ant and celebratory than Bauhaus traditions, but also more  cogent and flowing than axis-generated architecture.'

Read on for further design details from Patterson Associates:

"Lye was fascinated with temples and in conceiving the overall design it seemed aesthetically and historically appropriate to draw inspiration from the 'megarons,' or great halls, of the classical world, as well as Polynesian forms and ideas...To do this in a new way, we developed our thinking in a holistic or adaptive way, using what we call 'systems methodology.' This means that rather than using proportion or aesthetics, we use patterns in the ecology of the project’s environments to drive the design elements.

The colonnade creates a theatre curtain, but with three asymmetric ramped sides, leading to a type of vestibule, known as 'pronaos' in Ancient Greece. This is formed by the gallery holding the large Lye works.  Viewed from above, the colonnade’s top edges create a koru form, displaying the Museum’s Polynesian influences as the meeting house, or wharenui, for Len Lye."

"The procession of the colonnade morphs into a portico, announcing the main gallery as a type of megaron but also functioning as a wharenui; the deities and ancestors referenced and represented by Lye’s inspirational work. Traditionally, the most sacred and private part of  a temple, the 'adyton,' is located at the point furthest from the entrance. Here the Len Lye archive is housed, while the ‘treasury’ — known as the 'opisthodomos' — looks back to the people entering below. 

"The project respectfully links into the smaller existing Govett Brewster Art Gallery, which itself has been retrofitted from the city’s decommissioned heritage cinema. The combined facility is undivided, with a circular loop allowing visitors to appreciate the changing museum and gallery displays within one flexible and shared structure. On the circular loop, light is drawn inside through the apertures in the colonnade, and these create moving light patterns on the walkway, perhaps a form of passive kinetic architecture."

Scroll further down for additional photos.