1 Nov 2016 - TED Ten's strategies 6

1 NOV 2016 – TED TEN STRATEGIES

KUNSTHAUS GRAZ

Ted’s ten: 6 - Design that looks at models from nature and history

The Kunsthaus Graz is an architectural landmark in the city center, designed by Sir Peter Cook and Colin Fournier. It serves as a bridge between the historic and the modern. Known to locals as the “Friendly Alien,” the blob-shaped structure contains contemporary art, design, new media, film and photography. Although the building makes quite a statement, its environmental impact is very low, as the building's organic roof -- made from 1,288 semi-transparent acrylic glass panels -- generates energy with built-in photo voltaic panels.

Measuring 27,000 square foot, this massive building that rapidly became a city landmark was designed for showcasing contemporary art exhibitions, new media displays and hosting events.

The Kunsthaus Graz is covered by thousands of semi-transparent acrylic glass panels that form a “BIX Façade” (a combination of the words “Big” and “pixels”). Designed by Berlin design firm realities:united, BIX is the 900 m2 light and media installation in the façade of the Kunsthaus in Graz. It makes it possible to program the façade like a computer monitor and to broadcast projections, animations, or messages into the urban space. The conceptual highlights are the individual lighting elements that constitute the screen: not filigree, high-tech LEDs, but conventional, circular fluorescent lamps, arranged on a vast scale.

Opinions

The main features of the building highlights the theatrical performances. Those are the spaceship-like form and the BIX communicative display. From what I observed in pictures, this flamboyant building is blatantly at odd with the surrounding cityscape. This only makes the contrast of old and new more shocking in such an intact historic city center,

The question is, is this large alien building, as an intruder is as friendly as its architects hoped; or whether this humongous, vast structure in its synthetic skin will be acting as a predator, threatening the city scape of rectilinear?

Despite its outrageous alien origins, the building observed some fundamental rules like rising no higher than 5 storey buildings, and its amoeba like body fits between the irregular space between buildings.

Bibliography

1. Kunsthaus Graz Museum

(2017) Performative Architecture. Available at: https://performativearc.wordpress.com/kunsthaus-graz-museum/ (Accessed: 15 November 2016).

2. Spring, M. (2017) Kunsthaus Graz: You sexy thing, Building. Available at: http://www.building.co.uk/kunsthaus-graz-you-sexy-thing/1031297.article (Accessed: 15 November 2016).