BIG SHORTLISTED PROPOSAL “ARTA” COMPETITION

ArtA will house the Museum Arnhem and the Focus Film Theater in a new cultural facility - bringing together creative professionals, entrepreneurs, artists and visitors locally and regionally.

Attractively located at the waterfront, the axis of the site forms a symbolic connection between the historic city center and the Rhine River. We propose a simple building volume with two poles.

The Film Theater facing the city and the Art Museum facing the river. Combining a contemporary exhibition facility with a film theater in a vibrant public building is paradoxical challenge.

Most successful contemporary art galleries are characterized by the spatial qualities of industrial warehouses. Large open floor plans with generous ceiling heights and great flexibility for internal divisions and daylight control.

The film theater, on the other hand, is inherently a black box - an introvert space for contemplation and focus.

ArtA fuses the two traditional architectural archetypes, the Black Box and the White Cube, and creates a gradient of transitional spatial conditions that lends itself to new hybrid programs of art and performance.

A simple twist of the building volume generates a diagonal public art plaza that connects the ground floor with the roof top. The Art Plaza creates encounters between the various users of the building - blurring the boundaries between art, public life, education and recreation.

The building becomes a unique offspring - at once organic and rational, transparent and solid, unique and flexible, extrovert and introvert.

Location: Arnhem, The Netherlands 
Architects: BIG 
Collaborators: Allard Architecture 
Partners In Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen 
Project Leader: Huang Kai Liao 
Project Architect: Marie Lancon 
Project Team: Jakub Wlodarczyk, Martin Maria Beck, Dariusz Duong Vu Hong, Giedrius Mamavicius, Domenic Schmid, Dimitrie Grigorescu 
Area: 8000.0 sqm 
Type: Competition 
Year: 2014