The storing and displaying of artifacts are two critical and typically separate function in a museum.
In this space the city colleges and universities of Chicago will juxtapose their collections through
a gradient of visibility. Three different spaces of examination
and research connect institutions and implicate the general public of the city. Artifacts cycle through
the structure on a mechanical conveyor and are dynamically curated by research activity.
It works like a stack of books, take one out and the whole order shifts down one place.
The top of the stack of artifacts runs along the facade of the building displaying the most current
research, the middle (majority of the artifacts) runs through a catacomb, and the end (the least current
artifacts) opens up to a sky lit rear atrium. The new organization of artifacts
creates odd juxstapositions and will generate new connections. For example a medical student
could be searching for a bifurcated kitten skull and by chance stumbling across presidential
documents next to it on genetic experimentation from the law collections.
Thank you to professors
Anders Nereim
and
Francis Cooke.
a grove of apple trees grows over the lecture hall wing
the tower covers a blank wall and an ada ramp connects to the overhead rail line and roof top park
the basement is the main portion of the artifact stack
the commercial space faces busy state street
the research tower links academics from many diciplines
the body of the museum is bathed in light from skylights at each colmun
the form was generated after many program diagrams and quick clay models
euvolemic
