the premise that we are employing technology to increase the “visible” portion of our world. This comes above all from surveys conducted on the relationship between man and visual image screens (cinema, TV, etc.). However, in this case we are talking about computer screens that are used with the entire range of virtual reality technologies to perceive the relationship between space and surface and ascertain how they are interwoven and multiplied. In order to broach the subject and perceive the infinite implications and complexities, it may be helpful to refer to studies and research conducted by the scholar and UCLA professor Marcos Novak.
He defines the computer screen as “A two-dimensional prototype of expanded space-time, a highly interactive and intelligent surface, or ‘hypersurface.’ At first glance, it possesses two spatial dimensions; one temporal dimension and a variety of characteristics connected to space such as color and resolution, for example. The most interesting aspect concerns its capacity to produce complex behaviors and relationships connected as it is to hyperspaces created by the computers that manage it. Therefore, the screen’s hypersurface is our interface to otherwise inaccessible hyperspaces. If these are not only inaccessible but also, at the limits of the presentable, a prosthesis toward the inconceivable and beyond, then they lead us to the transmodern. “When we imagine the computer screen as a floor and the cursor as symbol of our presence in an intelligent, hyperactive, transactive space, then we perceive a detailed premonition of the nature of our interactions through the interfacing of the hypersurfaces with the ‘transarchitecture’ of an expanded space-time. This premonition needs only to be detached from the screen and inserted in the daily space of our corporeality,” (from Il Progetto, n. 5, architectural quarterly). Returning to the project for the Museum of Natural History, it is obvious how the edifice’s relationship with the natural world is intense and charged with metaphors that refer to climatic elements. For example, climate control of the large exposition hall is possible thanks to a light, transparent covering capable of recreating the interaction of natural elements such as water and sunshine. The greenhouse effect and the considerable solar heat created by such a covering has been resolved with a system of spray nozzles that release a veil of water on the external surface of the covering. This covering, equipped with a special microclimate, can work as an artificial sky capable of creating clouds and climatic changes, similar to those found in nature. Additional metaphors can be identified in the covering’s structural system. Six large portals share the weight of the main frame of the bearing structure which, projecting onto the room like the enormous skeleton of some prehistoric animal, confers a decidedly organic aspect to the entire museum complex. There are also plans for an emergency containment system for downpours. For instance, in case of heavy rain, the water would be conveyed into an area characterized by an ample grass-covered depression. This way, even in an emergency, the museum complex is guaranteed minimum operational autonomy.
Inserimento dei nuovi padiglioni che concludono il percorso espositivo mentre quelli degli ex Macelli definiscono uno spazio di tipo urbano destinato a piazzale.
Location of the new pavilions that end the exhibit pathway while the former slaughterhouses define an urban space that will form a small plaza.
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