*Drawings II
01. Rotated plan oblique with superimposed volumes and circulation in site conditionContext
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.
02. Exploded worm’s eye drawing depicting suspended volumes and carved ground conditions
03. Developed drawing showing datums of ground, levels, and symetries Produced with Tamara Birghoffer
Instructed by Russell Thomsen