02 | City Gallery

A 43,000 square-foot City Gallery, or rather convergence of the Municipal Services and Art Gallery programs, this project explores the usage of the 'Square' and how its reflection and shifting can create self-similar, yet experientially differing spaces. I developed a proportional system of "square roots" to establish scale in both plan and section proportions, while the 'Square' itself is the building block of the massing as a whole. Intentionally sunk into the topography of its South Berkeley site, shifting in plan creates a zig-zag along the main axes of travel through the site, and crossover circulation methods allow the user to interact with the structure and surrounding cityscape at different elevations. The 'zig' allows quick access across the site, while the 'zag' allows for a meandering between levels and programmatic elements. Further setbacks in section create light shelves to bring natural light deep into the interior and below-grade spaces. Its North-South orientation permits ample natural light to penetrate into the central service counters and gallery space. The grain of the structural beam matrix matches that of the shifting technique in plan, whereas in section the grain of experiential movement is followed. These moves create a heavy yet open form depending on the axis it is viewed, and allows what initially appears to be a simple, mirrored form to reveal carefully-calibrated site-specific complexities, all deriving from the 'Square'.