VIGNETTE OF A ZEITGEIST: FURNITURE GALLERY
V IGN ET T E OF A ZEI TGEI ST : F U R N ITU R E G AL L E R Y Furniture Gallery & Workshop // Spring 2015 // 1 week State College, Pennsylvania Undergraduate Submission // Beginning Design // Competition
Project Description: The late Bill Ha jjar, a prominent local architect, was well-known for leading the movement of mid-century modern design in central Pennsylvania. It was on the property of one of his more prominent projects, the Eisenstein House, that we were instructed to design a small gallery with an attached workshop to display and restore mid-century modern furniture. When curating an exhibition, the primary goal is to create an environment that inspires, organizes, & advertises the collection. I was intrigued by this small gallery’s ability to provide a look into a past time. The gallery provides this vignette of a zeitgeist by carefully composing an arrangement of restored furniture in a monolithic form that removes visitors from the present and places them in a blank, vacuous space. In order to intrigue passersby, a single window with a featured furniture piece hints at the contents of the gallery, serving as signage for the otherwise unadorned building. The simplicity of the block with a single window display creates a compelling vignette of a past time. The reading room extends the mood of the gallery, providing a space for reflection; the form is buried into the site, with windows above the seating area, where visitors are again immersed into their thoughts of another time. The studio portion of the program had to be treated differently than the gallery and reading room. Here, creation, production, and activity encourage passersby to take a closer look. The form of the studio, then, required abundant transparency to display the activity of restoration. All the pieces of this small building serve to provide a small glimpse, or a vignette, of mid-century life through design.
site & roof plan
0’
8’
16’
32’
64’
south elevation
0’
8’
gallery interior
floor plan
0’
16’
32’
reading room interior
8’
16’
32’
64’
64’
workshop interior
exterior perspective, from southwest
jogged section
0’
8’
16’
32’
64’
Project Description: The late Bill Ha jjar, a prominent local architect, was well-known for leading the movement of mid-century modern design in central Pennsylvania. It was on the property of one of his more prominent projects, the Eisenstein House, that we were instructed to design a small gallery with an attached workshop to display and restore mid-century modern furniture. When curating an exhibition, the primary goal is to create an environment that inspires, organizes, & advertises the collection. I was intrigued by this small gallery’s ability to provide a look into a past time. The gallery provides this vignette of a zeitgeist by carefully composing an arrangement of restored furniture in a monolithic form that removes visitors from the present and places them in a blank, vacuous space. In order to intrigue passersby, a single window with a featured furniture piece hints at the contents of the gallery, serving as signage for the otherwise unadorned building. The simplicity of the block with a single window display creates a compelling vignette of a past time. The reading room extends the mood of the gallery, providing a space for reflection; the form is buried into the site, with windows above the seating area, where visitors are again immersed into their thoughts of another time. The studio portion of the program had to be treated differently than the gallery and reading room. Here, creation, production, and activity encourage passersby to take a closer look. The form of the studio, then, required abundant transparency to display the activity of restoration. All the pieces of this small building serve to provide a small glimpse, or a vignette, of mid-century life through design.
site & roof plan
0’
8’
16’
32’
64’
south elevation
0’
8’
gallery interior
floor plan
0’
16’
32’
reading room interior
8’
16’
32’
64’
64’
workshop interior
exterior perspective, from southwest
jogged section
0’
8’
16’
32’
64’
