Project 3| Precedent Study

1) Museum of Anthropology , University of British Columbia (1972-76)
Arthur Erickson

Design Concept:
create conditions similar to the settings of the native Indian villages which were the origin of the museum’s collection. The transition from dark towering woods to bright exposed sea provided a dramatic setting. Experience of visiting can be likened to a metaphor of the journey through life and through a Northwest coast village.


Entrance

• As one proceeds from the brightness of the parking clearing into the museum, the openness to the sky is gradually cut off, first by trees that form a channel to the entrance, then by free-standing post-and-beam frames, then by the ceiling of the lobby.
  
• Views opening out into the woods from lobby through floor-to-ceiling glass and skylight slots also bring daylight down to the exhibits, revealing them as they would be revealed in the forest by filtered light from above.
  
• Experience of light in lobby similar to that in deep woods where you can see through clearings and light filters through tree canopy overhead. Visitors are prepared to enter into the deep forest (main gallery).
  
  Circulation/ Sequence of space
• Sequential experiences of the rooms are created by alternating dark and light exhibiting space and there is a tension created between inside and outside.
• After through the contracted sequence of entry lobby and the ramped gallery, visitors experience a release to the light-filled Massive Carvings Gallery that suggests a village site.
• Ones leave the life and light of the village enters the contracting space of the Koerner Gallery, the setting for symbolic and sacred objects used in spiritual ceremonies.
• On the journey back to the beginning, one is attracted to the focus of the centrepiece sculpture “The Birth of Man”, surrounded by darkness but lit up the circle skylight. The sculpture represents birth also suggests the death and the endless continuation of the cycle.
  
  
  Lighting
• Many different ways of admitting light, different patterns of light and different levels of illumination are employed to provides the visitors with the experience of native village and display artifacts.
• Light from above: Entry Lobby, Ramped Gallery, Massive Carvings Galler.
• Light from side: Entry lobby, Great Cavings Gallery, Koerner Masterpiece Gallery
• Light delineating structure: Massive Carvings Gallery
• Light dematerializing structure: Dappled light in Koerner Masterpiece Gallery
• Light washing surfaces and silhouetting forms: Ramped Gallery
  
  Learning:
• Close relationship between the ambience of the exhibiting space and the arts displayed.
• Re-create the native settings of the artifacts through inter-play of light and dark.
• Interplay of form through expansion/ contraction of space and lighting (light-to-dark-light) create the sequence of space and guide the visitors through the museum.
• There is a rhythm of light and dark at the building scale and a particular rhythm for each room.