Renewal-Zone：Studio Gang作品：阿肯色州美术博物馆改造扩建︱从过往中重生
阿肯色州美术博物馆 (AMFA) 是州内规模最大的该类文化机构，已于2023年4月22日重新向公众开放，坐落于由Studio Gang设计的一座新近改造的建筑中。作为Studio Gang打造的首座已完工的艺术博物馆，自2019年开展大规模的扩建和翻新后，AMFA再次回到公众的视野中。
Studio Gang的设计为AMFA竖立了大胆的建筑新形象，这座建筑面积达13.3万平方英尺，与周围的城市和公园相融。原有的八座建筑风格不同，且建于不同年代，设计通过布局重构将其凝聚成为相互协作的整体，从而焕发出新的活力。设计植入的扩建部分如同主环线贯穿整个建筑中心，统一和重组了博物馆现有的功能，并实现了整个建筑和场地内的顺畅无阻。
“自成立以来，阿肯色州美术博物馆一直是深受人们喜爱的社区支柱，但随着时间的推移和主要设施的扩建，建筑逐步与社区和公园分离开来，”Studio Gang的创始负责人兼合伙人Jeanne Gang表示：“我们将这次设计视作重新连接建筑与周围环境的机会，也是对现有结构进行调整和重新构想的机会，使其广迎所有访客并支持内部各项活力创意活动的开展。”
作为可持续设计手法的一部分，原有的结构和基础被充分保留，新建的中央主环建筑则以有机的弯曲形式直接化解了室内外的限制和挑战。由现浇混凝土制成的创新折叠板结构组成了独特的屋顶，并随着地形的变化逐渐降低高度，天窗为博物馆内部带来了充沛的自然光，而其遮蔽的悬垂部分有效防止了阳光的直射。
室内，设计在博物馆的多元化功能中建立并诠释了其间的联系。富有动感的木质天花板由单根悬挂的木板条以直线排列而成，直观地引导游客从新建中庭去往其他分支区域，其中包括：展有永久藏品也举办临时展览的哈里特和沃伦·斯蒂芬斯展厅、面向所有年龄段和专业方向的学生并涵盖八个新的艺术工作室的Windgate艺术学校，以及拥有350个座位的表演艺术剧院、博物馆商店和演讲厅。
新建的中央主结构仿佛向任一端绽放，将博物馆向周围打开，欢迎公众的进入。北边的文化客厅是一个悬垂的透明体量，作为社区聚会空间和标识欢迎人们前来参观。在南面，深深悬垂的屋顶为新的室内外餐厅营造出一片带有遮挡的用餐露台。餐厅向下延伸至麦克阿瑟公园。
设计将建筑和景观视为一体化。由SCAPE事务所更新后的11英亩景观，将博物馆的体验延伸到户外，以一系列新的植物展现生物多样性，并为室内外的社交空间带来了遮荫和风景，让公众通过新的路径穿行于自然和户外雕塑中。
除了提供遮阳和提升建筑的能源性能，博物馆屋顶上独特的褶皱还将雨水引至紧邻建筑的雨水花园中。降水在这些花园中得到过滤后流向麦克阿瑟公园的整片景观中，并最终进入场地南端的福斯特池塘。
AMFA是Studio Gang持续致力于对既有建筑进行开创性再利用的最新力证。通过对既有建筑结构的重新构想实现建筑的碳减排，也是Jeanne Gang作为哈佛大学设计研究生院实践教授的一项教学重点。事务所的作品涉及适应性再利用项目、对已有博物馆园区的谨慎扩建以及对工业建筑的重新塑造。
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), the largest cultural institution of its kind in the state, re-opened on April 22, 2023, in a newly transformed building designed by Studio Gang. The museum, which is Studio Gang's first completed art museum, has been closed to the public since 2019 while it underwent its major expansion and renovation.
Studio Gang's design creates a 133,000-square-foot building that embraces the surrounding city and park while also establishing a bold new architectural identity for AMFA. The design revitalizes the Museum's eight existing structures, which were built in different eras and architectural styles, by reconfiguring them in a way that allows them to work together as a cohesive building. It also introduces an addition that runs through the center of the entire building like a stem, unifying and reorganizing the Museum's existing functions and enabling a seamless flow through the building and across the site.
"The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts has been a beloved community anchor since its founding, but over time its main additions had resulted in a building that was isolated from the neighborhood and park," said Jeanne Gang, Founding Principal and Partner of Studio Gang. "We saw the design as an opportunity to reconnect the building with its surroundings and to adapt and reimagine the existing structures so they would welcome all visitors and support the vibrant, creative activities going on inside."
Both inside and outside, the organic, curving form of the central stem responds directly to the constraints of the existing structure and foundations, which were substantially preserved as part of the design's sustainable approach. Its distinctive roof is an innovative, folded-plate structure made of cast-in-place concrete. Stepping down in height with the site's topography, its clerestory windows fill the interior of the museum with natural light, while its sheltering overhangs protect from the heat of the sun.
Inside, the design establishes and clarifies connections between the museum's diverse program. Its dynamic wood ceiling, composed of individually suspended wood slats arranged in a linear pattern, helps intuitively guides visitors through the spaces that branch off from the central addition's Atrium. These include the Harriet and Warren Stephens Galleries, which displays elements from the permanent collection as well as host temporary exhibitions; the Windgate Art School, which includes eight new art studios for students of all ages and skillsets; the 350-seat Performing Arts Theater, Museum Store, and lecture hall.
At each end, the central stem appears to blossom outward, opening the museum to its surroundings and welcoming the public in. To the north is the Cultural Living Room, a hovering, transparent volume that serves as a community gathering space and as a beacon that welcomes visitors to AMFA. To the south, the deep overhangs of the roof create a sheltered dining terrace for the new indoor-outdoor restaurant that steps down to meet MacArthur Park.
The design also treats architecture and landscape as intrinsically linked. An 11-acre renewed landscape, designed by SCAPE, extends the Museum experience into the outdoors, bringing a biodiverse array of new plantings that provide shade and beauty for indoor/outdoor social spaces, as well as new paths that allow the public to enjoy nature and view outdoor sculptures.
In addition to providing shade and improving the building's energy performance, the distinctive pleats on the Museum's roof are also designed to direct rainwater into the rain gardens next to the building. These gardens capture and filter the water before distributing it throughout the MacArthur Park landscape and, eventually, into Foster Pond at the south end of the site.
AMFA marks the latest example of Studio Gang's ongoing commitment to the creative reuse of existing buildings. Mitigating the impact of embodied carbon in architecture by reimagining existing structures is an ongoing focus of Jeanne Gang's teaching as a Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. The firm's portfolio includes adaptive reuse projects, sensitive additions to existing museum campuses, and significant reinventions of industrial buildings.
Location: Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Design Architect & Architect of Record: Studio Gang, Chicago
Project Team:
Jeanne Gang, Founding Principal and Partner. Juliane Wolf, Design Principal and Partner.
Margaret Cavenagh, Design Principal, Interiors. Angela Peckham, Senior Project Leader.
Design Team: Paige Adams, Jill Doran, Emily Licht, AJ Rosales, Stanley Schultz, David Swain, Rolf Temesvari, Peter Yi, and Wen Zhou
Associate Architect: Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, Little Rock
Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
David Porter, Cindy Pruitt, Wendell Kinzler, Laura Hendrix, Kate Edwards, David Rogers, Dian Bartlett
Consultants
Landscape Architect: SCAPE
Structural Engineer and Enclosure Consultant: Thornton Tomasetti
Civil Engineer: McClellend Consulting Engineers
MEPFP Engineer and Sustainability Consultant: dbHMS
Lighting Designer: Licht Kunst Licht
Acoustical, Theatrical, and AV Systems Designer: ARUP
Cost Estimator: Venue Consulting
General contractor: Nabholz Pepper Doyne Construction Company, LLC
· END ·
