The design of the Art Interactive Gallery facade, landscape, and signage was the result of WINNING an open INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMPETITION in 2003. Recently closed down, it was located just off of Central Square, Cambridge, MA.
The competition was challenging in its requirements & limitations. It called for the complex program of a new public image, signage, a new entrance, and light control/blackout capability; but was restricted by a budget of $2,000, the historic modernist structure (by Jose Luis Sert) into which it fit, and the city’s rather conservative architecture and signage laws.
This winning entry - entitled “Facade Masterplan” - offered the gallery flexibility. The design described a system (a set of rules) that would accomplish all of the programmatic requirements at varying cost options, capable of being altered in time with more funding. It pushed the notion of "interactive" to a poetic level, while fitting within the parameters of the historic building.
After revisions and a budget increase, the project was completed in 2004.
“IOANA URMA’s winning design, facade masterplan... resolved the complex competition brief in a feasible and aesthetically dramatic manner, enhancing the present and future public image of the ART INTERACTIVE. [It provides] for the variable programmatic needs of a contemporary gallery, re-ordering the existing facade, addressing the desire for pedestrian and street scale signage, and achieving this within the economic realities of the proposed construction project.”
“[The design] thoughtfully and sensitively re-conceptualizes the ground floor exterior of the SERT building. It provides an enduring public image for the ART INTERACTIVE at both human and urban scales, and, at the same time, offers a flexible and feasible solution to the changing needs of the exhibition program. The ART INTERACTIVE looks forward to collaborating with MS. URMA to realize this elegant project.”
- The Art Interactive Competition Announcement, April 2003
Another announcement was published in THE BOSTON HERALD (June 2003) & an article was published in the AI:files, Summer 2003 issue.
FACADE MASTERPLAN
Proposal for an ‘interactive’/evolving facade that honors the structure to which it belongs.
The design acts as a masterplan, a landscape within which a series of design interventions can develop in differing proportion of detail and cost. The ART INTERACTIVE members are encouraged to participate in the development of these highlighted moments of interaction. It can be expected that these interventions will alter, move or vanish in time, as the gallery changes, and as the role of ART INTERACTIVE becomes better defined within the community.
NOTE OF CAUTION: The design tries to express that interaction is not gadget related, but about the ability of one thing to act upon another... Such as the trees acting upon the glass, such as changing internal events, and time, acting upon the facade.
ORIGINAL BUILDING CONCEPTS (JOSE LUIS SERT’s): Light box floats above a ‘public’ base. Temple-like entrance framed by columns, red doors and large ‘lintel’. Rhythm of windows like music in a forest
CURRENT EVENTS (EXISTING CONDITION): The base is in competition with the floating box because the lower windows are covered up oddly... The rhythm cannot be read. The red doors, mistaken for the now closed main entrance, tell visitors that the gallery, and the building, is closed.
Using dark and strong colors within the window units allows the white mullions, and thus the beautiful rhythm, to become evident.
ITERATIONS OVER TIME: FINDING THE ENTRANCE BECOMES LESS CRUCIAL. ART INTERACTIVE HAS ESTABLISHED ITSELF. DISPLAYS REPLACE ARROWS.
BASIC INGREDIENTS
Black drapes behind the window frames.
Reflective film on glass.
Light boxes of varying colors - these light boxes may become more developed displays, working in collaboration with ART INTERACTIVE members to develop them.
BASIC RULES
Inserts must fit within architectural parameters. Displays must take up space of entire window.
Post-competition work involved building and using a 1/4” study model as a form of discussion/design collaboration with the client, the landlord and the city community development, signage & historic commissions, for approval and fundraising. The material budget was thereby increased from an unrealistic $2,000 to $10,000 (still low).
Based on this COLLABORATION several big items were revised: 1. the location of the main entrance moved to the back of the alley (adding the pedestrian alley space to the project), 2. the permeability of the street level storefront (more open, for street safety), and 3. the replacement of the hard-to-build lightboxes with paint. The design also changed to account for the fact that all construction work was unskilled volunteer labor.
Aside from design, the project required a detailed breakdown of the construction costs, with several bids for each material, and construction supervision. Devin Cough of the AI helped with the cost analysis and construction coordination. The construction was carried out by the AI volunteers.
