Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl
12/10/2016.
[University of Iowa] USA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Steven Holl Architects has completed an Iowa a Visual Arts Building, located on the university's campus in Iowa City. It replaces a 1936 building that was heavily damaged by flooding in June of 2008.
Overview. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Interior view hall. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Room. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Workshop. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Workshop. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Workshop. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Staircase. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Roof. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Night view. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Iwan Baan
Inside vision. Sketch by Steven Holl. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Layers. Sketch by Steven Holl. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Roof floor plan. Sketch by Steven Holl. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Site plan. Sketch by Steven Holl. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Site plan. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Ground floor plan. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
First floor plan. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Second floor plan. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Third floor plan. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Section a. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Section b. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Court of light diagram. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Northwest elevation. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Southeast elevation. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Northeast elevation. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
South west elevation. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl Archtitects.
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Eric Dean
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Detail. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Detail. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Detail. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Chris Mcvoy
Detail. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Photograph © Eric Dean
Detail. Visual Arts Building by Steven Holl. Image courtesy of the University of Iowa
Following his School of Art & Art History opening in 2006, Steven Holl Architects returns to the University of Iowa with the new school, Visual Arts Building. Located right next to the Art & Art History departments, Visuals Arts was designed by Steven Holl Architects in partnership with BNIM Architects, opened last week..
The new state of the art facility provides 11,706.00 square meter of loft-like space for all visual arts media, as well as galleries, faculty offices, an outdoor rooftop studio, and teaching spaces for Art History. The building is designed to encourage collaboration between all arts disciplines.
“A great social space at the center of this new building connects the arts to all disciplines on the University of Iowa campus. The building is a place of inspiration for its students, faculty and visitors to encounter the joy of architecture,” Steven Holl.
Description of project by Steven Holl Architects
“We set out to make a studio art building for the future of the arts which are more and more interconnected. Light and movement permeate all the studios, opening up access and views for creative abrasion between all art making activities,”
Senior Partner Chris McVoy.
The new Visual Arts facility for the University of Iowa's School of Art and Art History provides 126,000 sf of loft-like space for the departments of ceramics, sculpture, metals, photography, print making and 3D multimedia. It will also include graduate student studios, faculty and staff studios and offices, and gallery space.
The building replaces an original arts building from 1936, which was heavily damaged during a flood of the University of Iowa campus in June 2008. The new building will be located directly adjacent to and northwest of Art Building West, which Steven Holl Architects completed in 2006.
While the 2006 Arts Building West is horizontally porous and of planar composition, the new building will be vertically porous and volumetrically composed. The aim of maximum interaction between all departments of the school takes shape in social circulation spaces.
1. Interconnection: Horizontal Programs, Vertical Porosity
In a school of the arts today, interconnection and crossover are of fundamental importance. Today digital techniques open up increased interconnection between all the arts. Interconnection between all of the departments is facilitated in the vertical carving out of large open floor plates. Students can see activities ongoing across these openings and be encourages to interact and meet. Further interconnection is facilitated by glass partitions along the studio walls adjacent to internal circulation.
2. Multiple Centers of Light
Natural light and natural ventilation are inserted into the deep floor plates via the "multiple centers of light." Seven vertical cutouts encourage interaction between all four levels. These spaces of glass are characterized by a language of shifted layers where one floor plate slides past another. This geometry created multiple balconies, providing outdoor meeting spaces and informal exterior working space.
3. Stairs as Vertical Social Condensers:
Corridors as Horizontal Meeting Spaces
Stairs are shaped to encourage meeting, interaction and discussion. Some stairs stop at generous landings with tables and chairs, others open onto lounge spaces with sofas.
4. Campus Space Definition/Porosity
The original grid of the campus breaks up at the river, becoming organic as it hits the limestone bluff. The Arts West building reflects this irregular geometry in fuzzy edges. The new building picks up the campus grid again in its simple plan, defining the new campus space of the "arts meadow."
5. Material Resonance, Ecological Innovation
Natural ventilation is achieved via operable windows. A punched concrete frame structure provides thermal mass at the exterior while "bubble" slabs provide radiant cooling and heating. A Rheinzink skin in weathering blue-green is perforated for sun shade on the southwest and southeast.
More information
Architects
Steve Holl Architects
Project team
Steven Holl, Chris McVoy (design architects) Rychiee Espinosa (project architect) Garrick Ambrose, Bell Ying Yi Cai, Christiane Deptolla, JongSeo Lee, Johanna Muszbek, Garrett Ricciardi, Filipe Taboada, Jeanne Wellinger, Human Tieliu Wu, Christina Yessios (project team)
Associate Architects
BNIM Architects
Structural engineer
– Buro Happold
– Structural Engineering Associates
Manufacturers
Architectural Wall System, Bendheim, Cobiax, Okalux, Pohl, Rheinzink, Wausau
Area
11.706,00 m² / 126000.0 ft²
Location
Visual Arts Building, Iowa City, IA 52246, United States
Lighting Consultant
L'Observatoire International
Sustainability engineer
Transsolar
Mechanical engineer
Design Engineers
Curtain wall consultant
WJ Higgins & Co.
Civil engineer
Shive-Hattery
Audio/visual consultant
The Sextant Group Inc.
Landscape Architect Associate
BNIM Architects
STEVEN HOLL
Steven Holl was born in 1947 in Bremerton, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976 he attended the Architectural Association in London and established STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS in New York City. Considered one of America's most important architects.He has realized cultural, civic, academic and residential projects both in the United States and internationally. Most recently completed are the Cité de l'Océan et du Surf in Biarritz, France (2011).
Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. He has lectured and exhibited widely and has published numerous texts.
Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including the new design for the Contemporary Art Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, USA) and he has been recognized with architecture's most prestigious awards and prizes. Recently, he received the RIBA 2010 Jencks Award, and the first ever Arts Award of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2009). In 2006 Steven Holl received honorary degrees from Seattle University and Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest. In 2003 he was named Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
Steven Holl is a member of the American National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the American Institute of Architects, the American Association of Museums, the Honorary Whitney Circle, the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the International Honorary Committee, Vilpuri Library, of the Alvar Aalto Foundation.
