Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
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 a paradoxical challenge: Most successful contemporary art galleries are characterized by control. The Film Theater, on the other hand, is inherently a black box – an introverted 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 volumes generates a diagonal public art plaza that connects the ground floor with the rooftop. 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.