ARC 512b: ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN STUDIO
with MASSIMO SCOLARI (Fall 2008)
This project exploits the Island of Santorini as a formal and conceptual diagram for the design of a small museum for three Minoan Artifacts. An Archipelago located just north of the island of Crete, Santorini is a continuous land mass the breaks the plane of the Atlantic multiple times, creating a series of small, seemingly independent islands. However, beneath the surface of the water, Santorini is a single piece of rock - interconnected and contiguous. Like the island and its relationship to the ocean, a continuous tube of space wraps up and around a flat “public plane” drawing people towards the center of the building. Visitors are then distributed up and into the museum through the most labyrinthine of spaces. The Public plane divides the building into to parts, the public space above and th private, museum below, housing the Minoan treasures.
