Eyebeam Museum - Case Study

ISSUE NO 7 | VOLUME 4

ARCHITECTURE IN

MOTION DECEMBER 2018

CONT ENTS

PAGE 1 EDITOR'S LETTER This week issue was written by Cristina Mock, an Architecture Student part of our staff for Volume No.4

PAGE 2 DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO? An introduction to this week's chosen architects

PAGE 3 EYEBEAM MUSEUM OF ARTS & TECHNOLOGY Concept

PAGE 4 THE SPIDER The museum's attraction controlled by the public

PAGE 6 WAS IT BUILD?

ARCHITECTURE IN MOTION EDITOR'S LETTER

In this week of Architecture in Motion, we meet Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and their marvelous winning design for the Eyebeam Museum of Arts & Technology.

This being our issue No. 7, we wanted to give you an interesting and new look at motion in Architecture.

We chose the Eyebeam Museum of Arts & Technology because of the different concepts that it brought to Chelsea, New York. And the conceptual and physical idea of two fields being combined into one and shown to the public.

Personally, the Eyebeam Museum represents a new modern take on Education and Value, and I hope that we all take a little piece of it by the end of this issue.

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WRITTEN CRISTINA MOCK

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DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO Diller Scofidio was formed in 1981

by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio. They are married and both attended the Cooper Union School of Architecture.

One of their first recognized work was Para-Site at the Modern Museum of Art in 1989.

But their first big Architecture Achievement was Blur Building in 2002.

Later on, Renfro joined the firm and their duo became a trio in 2004. With Renfro on the team, Diller Scofidio + Renfro became a firm dedicated to public space.

With their winning design for the Highline at New York City, one of the city landmarks. Also designing two buildings at Columbia University.

Currently, Diller Scofidio + Renfro has 40 projects developing. One of their latest achievements was the Shed. They also won very recently a competition in London for a concert hall.

The trio became a four-person team including Benjamin Gilmartin in 2015.

DS + R has become a worldwide architecture firm with projects done in Brazil, the most recent being in La Paz, Bolivia.

Renfro commenting “We’ve gotten ourselves into a position where we can have an influence on how institutions are made. I would like to use that power to address important issues like inequality and sustainability and access to culture —issues that architects aren’t usually able to impact.”

The spaces created by the folded ribbon, create an spontea nous space, subtle o the different techno logies that would come with the years. It could also, give the opportunity to acco modate any new ar tistic and technological development.

Having a foldable ribbon, with de signated spaces, help the ar chi tects move the visitor in a certain way, rather than letting it wander around the building. The visitor goes one way up, so it follows the way that the architects and the owner want them to move, and what to see and explore.

PART MUSEUM FOR THE PRESENTATION OF EMERGING MEDIA ART AND PART LABORATORY FOR ITS PRODUCTION, THE MUSEUM OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY COMBINES THE PROGRAMS OF MUSEUM, THEATER, EDUCATION, AND PRODUCTION FACILITY. DS+ R

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The concept started with a two-ply ribbon, folded several times to create spaces and circulation.

Presentation Spaces would have been made with concrete walls and Production spaces with blue composite. Also, explained more openly as "A pliable ribbon separates presentation from production functions. The ribbon undulates from side to side as it climbs from the street, floor folding into the wall, folding into the floor, slipping back gradually to fit the diminishing zoning envelope. With each change of direction, the ribbon alternately enfolds a production or presentation space, thus combing together residents and visitors. The ribbon consists of a two-ply surface: a smooth concrete ply with precast service jacks or "smart pores" line exhibition levels; the second ply of lightweight removable panels of non-conductive composite material line production/education levels."

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THE SPIDER ATTRACTION Crawling on the outside of the building and facing the public street, there is an autonomous 'Spider' is a semi-autonomous robot walking the facade of the building in a spider-like motion, that's why it's mostly called 'The Spider'.

This robot was set to entertain the public inside the building, he would know where to go according to two different aspects; thermal imaging and population density, both provided by the building's computerized tracking system.

Every floor of the building would have had sockets for the robot to put his 18-foot long legs, one at a time. Therefore, it would move one leg at a time, while having the other three on the sockets to assure stability. In addition, the spider was to have a video-cameras on the legs, enabling it to see from the robot view.

These cameras would have been controlled by the museum's public. In addition to the videocameras in the robot's legs, it was to have a live video eye that would have directly transmitted video to an electronic mural to be created on the third floor.

Considering New York's weather, the architects considered the different weather conditions that this robot might have to go through.

Accordingly, the architects decided to create a small place for the robot to be kept, cleaned, and secure from the elements.

As a matter of fact, the robot is actually a pet, a spider-like pet: the visitors and the artists, either could 'play' or summon the pet with devices inside the building.

It could either do errands or little tricks for the person controlling it.

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TRANVERSE SECTION BY DS +R

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WAS IT BUILD? The Eyebeam Museum of Arts was scheduled to be built by 2007, but three years before this date, significant problems evolve regarding the building and conditions.

The project, as recorded in by The Art in America Magazine in 2007 "faces an uncertain future". It was rumo red that the project had finan cial problems as it was set to cost $90,000,000 U.S dollars to construct; but, structural problems surfaced in the final stages before the construction, which also jeopardized the project.

Even though it was never built, the general public still shows a huge appreciation for the design made by Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, for being a simple concept than transforms itself throughout the ribbon-slice floors. Also, the old but still stan ding building of The Eyebeam Museum presents a neon-sign with the shape of the desired new building that never got to see completion.

The work of Diller+ Scofidio questions how architecture may contribute to a probing and unresolved engagement with the world by challenging the images of stability and control we conventionally confer upon our buildings. Their new design for The Eye beam Atelier in New York not only reveals the innards of the museum by making a huge transparent billboard of the people, art and media-technology it contains, it also frames the intrinsically mutable identity of any contemporary cultural institution. In the end their proposition for this new media arts and performance center does much more than simply provide an armature for a new vision of art and technology--it produ ces vision itself.

KEITH MITNICK. 7/2/2003 ARTBOOK DISTRIBUTED ART PUBLISHERS

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A CRITIQUE FROM AN SCHOLAR

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REFERENCES Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology.

DS +F. Retrieved from https://dsrny.com/project/eyebeam? section=studio Mitnick, Keith (2004) Diller + Scofidio : Eyebeam Museum of New Media : the 2002 Charles and Ray Eames lecture / essay by Keith Mitnick. Retrieved from https://catalog.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/ 2815765 Muschamp, Herbert. "An Elegant Marriage of Inside and Outside." The New York times, 2001, pp. AR34.

Muschamp, Herbert. "An Elegant Marriage of Inside and Outside." The New York times, 2001, pp. AR34.

Aberrant Architectures? Diller Scofidio at the Whitney Museum. Produced by Michael Blackwood Productions. 2003. https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/ work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work %7C1844889.