A MUSEUM OF RAIN_PAGE ONE Jeffrey Smith Doug Rice Robert Horton
INTRODUCTION__________________________________________________________________________ Much of the world’s attention is now focused on the issue of global climate change, and London is not immune to the impact of these changes. In London's case, this appears to include increased annual rainfall, 15% above average in 2012. As Londoners come to grips with the impact of global climate change on their city, perhaps new site and new building programs can be created which explore the spatial, three dimensional, and aesthetic opportunities created by London’s new conditions, its “hydro-phenomena." This project asks: “How can a building meet water where it starts, in rain? And could a Museum of Rain be a model for economic and management solutions and at the same time a resource for creativity and innovation ?”
THREE WEEKS OF STUDY and EXPLORATION___________________________________________________ A MUSEUM OF RAIN The goal is a rich and evocative building program and design study focused on the subject and spatial experience of rain, explored in the context of London, its parks and gardens, its buildings, and its museums. Convenient to public transportation, Victoria Park in London’s East End will be the immediate context for the study. The unit will divide into several design teams. Each team will select a site in the park for their design and program study. Rain. It's all over the map: showering, spitting, drizzling, tiddling, teeming, bucketing, drumming and blattering; not to mention “cats and dogs” and “pitchforks.” And rain, though inherently transitory, is physical and often unforgettable. The effect of rain is just as varied. It can be cleaning and healing or threatening and destructive. It can be a stormwater nuisance and a threat to the city's mood, its fragile waterways, and eroding buildings. At the same time it can also be an environmental resource and a global commodity. Rain is needed and welcome; it washes away dirt, smog, guilt, and bad memories. In the country, rain is a saving grace; it brings the crops, continues the cycle of life, and maintains the economic and ecological system of planting and harvesting. Its sign, the rainbow, is the most beloved of images. Its sound can lull or alarm; every community must work out its relationship to rain. The thrust of the work for the three weeks will be the program development and project design of a new Museum of Rain. Students will work as a unit to develop the program in a preliminary way and will then work in smaller teams to refine the program, identify unique program features, and develop the project design in response to the particular site each team has chosen in Victoria Park. We imagine a large, shared overall site plan. This will be supported by models, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and photographs from each design team. The emphasis for student design presentations will be “the storyboard” of the place, the life and experience of the building and its grounds. Interpretive features such as simulators, video, and waterworks will be encouraged. IS IT TOO MUCH TO SAY THAT THERE IS AN ARCHITECTURE OF RAIN? Rain figures prominently in the accumulated wealth of cinematic experience. Filmmakers have long understood the potential of rain, its physical presence, its many moods, its capacity to become an integral part of the story and storytelling—its sheer beauty on screen. In its movie incarnations, rain is cleansing, rain is grace, rain is the birth of life; rain is also disaster, ruined hopes, and a projection of despair. Full feature screenings and thematic presentations throughout the three-week course will focus on the cinematic experience of rain created by filmmakers...the visual, aural, and tactile vocabulary of rain. ...from these and the unit discussions they engender we will broaden our understanding of rain.