Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Casanova + Hernandez, Tittot Glass Art Museum



Found in the Nethertherlands Architecture Institute (NAI), in there exhibition on using light in architecture, is a design by a Rotterdam-based architects Helena Casanova + Jesus Hernandez. This design was runner-up for the Tittot Glass Art Museum in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. The program for the museum consisted of 10,000 square meters of gallery space for presentation of historical Chinese glass art, glass production techniques, and contemporary glass objects. Using this idea of glass, Casanova + Hernandez experimented with densities, color mixes, degrees of transparency, and air bubbles, to design space that translates all these ideas into a series of cubic volumes. These cubic volumes are linked by underground passageways and introduce colored light along a park landscape. I particularly appreciate this project because of its experimentation with different types of glass and means of making glass. The model is also very interesting because it’s literally made out of glass and actually uses light how it would be used if actually constructed.
Mark Gettys

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