Light flight : an orchestrated perception

Abstract

In this era where the tangible is gradually replaced by the impalpable - newspaper vs. radio, books vs. Kindle, lectures vs. MIT Opencourseware, the movie theater vs. Netflix, etc., where does the traditional museum stand? Since the launch of Google Arts & Culture in 2011 (then called Google Art Project) and other platforms, the stronghold of material public galleries and their raison d'être have never-before been so challenged. The museum as the sole disseminator of knowledge no longer holds true. But is the corporeal really dead? Could a new museum paradigm be established such that it is more than simply an obsolete institution? The author believes that although the content of a museum seems translatable to the digital realm, the experience of authenticity is not replicable. It is apparent that an atmospheric enthrallment is the last bastion of a unique experience deliverable by the physical museum. The author believes that an American museum needs a representative architecture that is not, as oftentimes, borrowed from Europe and elsewhere. In this search for national identity, the typology of the skyscraper, which originated in the United States, may be seen as an exploitable form to be incorporated conceptually in a museum. Atmosphere is best produced by the presence and absence of light. As Louis Kahn puts it, "the shadow belongs to Light. [1]" Daylighting is always an intellection that brings the architects and engineers together to negotiate the trade-offs of an animated daylit experience and its energy footprint. Finding the balance between light and shadow will be an important element in creating an atmospheric path of cultivation. This thesis will engage in the development of a new museum paradigm that focuses on the creation of an immersive journey of enlightenment based on a unique mode of American passage complemented by the orchestration of daylight.