#506 - LACMA BY PETER ZUMTHOR
SUMMARY
This week, David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design review the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The two discussed LACMA’s entry & exterior, the interior design, external experience of LACMA, materiality, inside-outside connection, dark interior & psychological impact, building details, artwork display, open plan design, food options, architectural forms, and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(00:41) LACMA’s entry & exterior.
(07:53) Interior design.
“When I say I love the interior space [of LACMA], it doesn't mean that I'm putting Peter Zumthor on a pedestal because I've seen this before conceptually. What I love is that the concept was realised. To be able to experience a space like this, a conceptual architecture closely made to reality, and it produces the effects that we think it should. So to me, it's proof that a concept can have the impact that we want it to. If more people would just allow us architects to do that, we could produce more things that feel as good as this.” (14:18)
(15:57) External experience of LACMA.
(24:39) Materiality in LACMA
(28:18) Inside-outside connection.
“[LACMA has] this fusion of different things that you typically don't experience together. I think that's what architecture is supposed to do. It's supposed to create an environment where you are experiencing familiar things and new things, but all mixed up together, and they're just framed in a different way than what we see all the time. I think this is doing that.” (29:29)
(30:40) Dark interior & psychological impact.
(34:41) Building details.
“One of the things that architects and clients default to, is as much glass as possible, and as little frame as possible. They’d rather have the biggest piece of glass possible with butt joints and no frame. I get it. But window frames and mullions can really provide a sense of scale, datum and a reference point to make something more magical. It's a fallacy to think that pure glass automatically equals more connection to the outside, and automatically means a better view or experience. It's absolutely not the case.” (34:57)
(39:14) Artwork display.
(43:45) Open Plan.
(47:04) Food options.
(54:02) Architecture forms.
“Peter Zumthor had said that the geometry of [LACMA’s] plan was not something that he decided it to be. He wanted the building to perform in a certain way and to achieve certain things, and that was the best geometry for it, which is honest. As opposed to architects who have a formal agenda and that's all they're going to do regardless of anything else. They rationalize it through some bullshit, like, “Oh, it's like nature or whatever.” That’s nonsense.” (54:27)
“The argument that architecture mimics the forms of nature is such horseshit. Can we stop with that? It's like saying, “You feel a certain way when you're in nature, right? You feel good. Well, there's certain things that make you feel that way. And we're taking out those things and putting that into the buildings, and therefore the building is validated and you feel better because of that.” I disagree with that because depending on how you define people and nature, we exist as a species, a part of nature, but we're also very different from everything else in nature. A part of what it means to be human is this conflict. To not embrace the conflict, which is to say, to be open to other forms, geometries, colors, materials, etc., and to acknowledge that the nature of what we're doing is to wrestle with this conflict, it's a lie.” (55:05)
