Palimpsest Building: Investigations in Layers

Masters Final Project - Advisor Malini Srivastava, Spring 2022

Palimpsest, from the Greek terms palin (again) and psestos (rubbed smooth), refers to something used or altered but bearing visible traces of its earlier form. Buildings are a physical form of palimpsests, containing traces of the past.

In this project, palimpsest becomes a methodology of working, as I investigate the history of the Bell Museum through a process both collecting and representing information through layers. By using transparent material, fragments of drawings and photo graphs are collected and organized, creating layered drawings and models. Viewed in combination, layers reveal relationships between fragments, and inform a richer under standing of a building’s past and present. Throughout this process, new interventions are layered in and peeled away from the set of drawings or models. Collecting, layering, and peeling of fragments constructs longer narratives of the past, present, and future of natural history and The Bell Museum.

This project grappled with the complex and fragmented relationships with time and nature. Eventually, a program emerged that reflected that complexity. The new design creates layers of varied experiences as one makes their way deeper into the building. Visitors will progress through the museum in three phases. The first phase introduces viewers to natural history in a traditional setting, like that of a movie or lecture. The second phase invites viewers to engage with nature in fragments and layers. In phase three, spectators view nature reclaiming parts of the building..