Menil Museum Houston [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

MENIL MUSEUM _RENZOPIANO

INTRODUCTION • In 1972 the de Menils engaged noted architect Louis Kahn, who had recently completed the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, to design a museum to house their collection. • The building site was a 1920s residential enclave, entire blocks of which they had purchased over the course of several years with the aim of creating a storage facility and study center for their art. • Kahn called for removing all of the residential structures and transforming the entire site into a museum complex with gardens. • Dominique de Menil continued to pursue the idea of permanently housing the family collection in a public museum. Preliminary schemes were developed with architect Howard Barnstone. Then in 1980 she met the Italian architect Renzo Piano who she collaborated with excellently.

INTRODUCTION • The Menil Collection, located in Houston, Texas, USA, refers either to a museum that houses the private art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil. • The Renzo Piano-designed museum opened to the public in June 1987, has collection of twentieth-century art, including over 15,000 paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, photographs, and rare books.

Unlike the Kahn plan, the building envisioned by Piano—his first in the United States—would not remake the existing neighborhood but rather blend in and harmonize with it.

CONTEMPORARY ART GALLERY

LIBRARY

STAFF LOUNGE

CENTRAL LOBBY (ENTRANCE FROM NORTH)

PRIMITIVE ART GALLERY

MODERN PAINTING GALLERY

MATERIAL • The exterior—an understated facade of gray cypress siding, wide expanses of glass, and white-painted steel—echoes the surrounding bungalows, all of them painted the same shade of what has become known as “Menil gray.” • The building’s dark-stained pine floors, low-slung profile, large lawn, and surrounding portico further recall the neighboring domestic structures.

LIGHTING • De Menil insisted that most of her collection be displayed in natural light so that visitors could experience art as she did in her home, enlivened by the subtle changes that occur at different times of the day or year. • It was also critical that the works be protected from the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays. • Piano, with engineering consultants from Ove Arup and Partners, made several trips to Houston to measure light intensity and atmospheric conditions.

STRUCTURE • The second inspiration was Piano’s own sailboat, a model of which the architect had recently built using ferro-cement. • Enchanted by the flexibility of this particular material, piano designed a wave-shaped “leaf” for the menil’sroof and ceiling, which he used along with white steel trusses, both in the gallery spaces and on the building’s exterior, tounify the structure. • The leaves function as a method of controlling light levels and also as a means of returning air flow.