*Drawings II
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/57f74b4a047cd9cd0f0bfe95623c88ec5ef14ea733cc82cb71ba6fede45ebb2d/kendall-mann_oblique-1.jpg)
Context
This thesis takes on the Recent Prado Museum competition in Madrid, Spain. The competition calls for a surface-level architectural rehabilitation of the Hall of Realms, which extends the museum complex into a 6th building. Formerly a 17th-century private seat of power destined to become a public container of culture, the Hall of Realms competition falls into the all too familiar trope of a palace-to-museum conversion that produces a building we know how to occupy and relate to. Most competition entries attempted to restore the original palace, subtracting all the additions made throughout hundreds of years. This mentality prioritizes a chosen history that’s deemed to be more significant than other histories based on a false sense of originality. It ends up perpetuating a regressive idea in architectural restoration where the few are able to write the history of the many. Not only an educator but also a tool that upholds institutional power, the museum's architecture is encoded with a hierarchy. In order to transgress this building’s past burden of traditions, we misused iconic architectural characteristics to reorient an expected encounter into an unforeseen discovery.![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/69e9b159077e8439906531b685c0feb6a2d3059ce32ca8cf78777f0b50757d78/kendall-mann_exploded-worms-1.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/42b173cb96a540a96aa220df0019b6ddbb3d698b2e73b8bb98af779a9403cc1e/kendall-mann_unfolded-1.jpg)
Produced with Tamara Birghoffer
Instructed by Russell Thomsen