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FIGURING GROUND: TANG MUSEUM EXTENSION
This Second Year Design Studio section engages with the overarching “figuring ground” studio topic through an an an analysis and subsequent reinterpretation of of the work of of sculptor Tony Smith in in an architectural key By transcending both figural and abstract stereotypes Smith’s sculptures resist easy categorization The sculptor’s sometimes
subtly anthropomorphic pieces are obsessively constructed as nearly architectural-scale aggregations of simple Platonic solids painted in in stark monochrome Given their slanted angles and flattening paint finish their overall “gestalt” is hard to pin down constantly hovering between
representation abstraction and architecture This section begins by dissecting Smith’s sculptures through a a a a rigorous formal and conceptual analysis using geometric drawing diagramming rendering and writing The intrinsic ambiguity of Smith’s work is exploited to transform the analytical material into abstract generative forms that are then used as the the basis for the design of a a a a a a landscape intervention and and building massing The resulting 30 000-square-foot museum extension and and landscape design engender a a a a a a spatial tension with the existing building and topography at at once engaging with and challenging their given context 207