The museum is not a singular or path-breaking work of architecture; its design goals have more to do with manipulating light and shadow and with physical substance [...]
Yet taken as a whole the museum offers a range of encouraging signs about the priorities of architecture’s up-and-coming generation. These include a genuine interest in shifting definitions of public space in a digital age and — most important of all — a preference for measured and layered effects over operatic ones.
— Christopher Hawthorne - latimes.com
UC Davis' new Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of art opened in November, and will function as a teaching museum with spaces for studios, galleries, and classrooms, including a courtyard for performances and installations.
According to Hawthorne, SO-IL's design (done in collaboration Karl Backus of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, an SF-based firm known for its multiple Apple stores), "flows primarily from [SO-IL leaders] Idenburg, 42, and Liu, 37, whose work tends to be porous and substantial at the same time, with cubic forms often cloaked or veiled by snug, semi-transparent skins." Hawthorne also refers back to SO-IL's YAP-winning "Pole Dance", as a tone-setter for the firm's aesthetic.
Check out Iwan Baan's photos of the museum below.
Get the backsotry on SO-IL and the Shrem museum here:
3 Comments
Is this a museum that is meant to be viewed from above? Make sure you bring your drone when you go.
Very good review. SO-IL is talented, and should get more large scale US projects. "Measured and layered" over "Operatic" is a key point.
Christopher Hawthorne should be the architecture critic for the NYTimes, his thesis toward the end sounds like a call to get back to the substance of architecture and away from these superficial narratives. Need reality and grounded thinking now more than ever.
the artistic canopy is made by a Hong Kong company
http://www.program.com.hk/portfolio/metal-art-ceiling-jan-shrem-and-maria-manetti-shrem-museum/
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