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Organic architecture and interactive tools to renovate New York's Museum of Natural History

2023-05-12T10:58:11.866Z

Highlights: The Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation is the latest addition to the dozen buildings that make up the institution since its founding in 1869. In Invisible Worlds, an immersive 360-degree experience that recreates in just over 10 minutes the development and future of the universe, the public receives downloads of information, light and colors like an interactive panopticon. The new center also facilitates the visitor's journey by establishing continuity through an enclosure that occupies four blocks and connects buildings that were built over almost 150 years.


The century-old institution opens a new wing, home to a center for education and research, which has taken 10 years to build and has cost 465 million dollars


An applied procession of ants carries leaves, grains and splinters in public view, on a tiny walkway protected by glass, while a Hercules beetle stretches in slow motion, with meccano movements, on a nearby panel. Hundreds of butterflies belonging to 80 different species are concentrated in a humid tropical enclosure; Most fluttering in ground or absorbed in the leafiness of a leaf, while others sip the juice of citrus segments, part of their daily ration of food, without paying attention to human beings who after crossing a double door -to prevent any from escaping- surrender to the wonderful drawings and colors of their wings. In Invisible Worlds, an immersive 360-degree experience that recreates in just over 10 minutes the development and future of the universe, the public receives downloads of information, light and colors like an interactive panopticon. A studio based in Mairena del Alcor (Seville) has collaborated in the design.

They are some of the main attractions of the new wing of the New York Museum of Natural History, which is among the most popular in the city, with five million visits a year before the pandemic. The new section is called the Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation, and is the latest addition to the dozen buildings that make up the institution since its founding in 1869. Unlike older rooms, such as ethnography rooms, filled with wooden and glass shelves and felt dolls, the Gilder Center is the advent of a new era: after 10 years of work, from planning to final execution in a process weighed down by the pandemic, and with an investment of 465 million dollars (425 million euros), the American Museum of Natural History is today an interactive knowledge platform.

Visitors at the immersive experience zone of the Museum of Natural History in New York, April 26. Mary Altaffer (Associated Press/LaPresse)

While the new building is internationally acclaimed as a great architectural achievement, so successful that it raises a recurring question in contemporary museums – whether the continent can eclipse the content – the scientific character of the center, with new generation classrooms and a macro data center, runs parallel to its obligatory exhibition function. Of the four million pieces housed in the museum as a whole, only about 30,000 are exhibited to the public; From now on, the virtual dimension of the new building, with touch panels available to the visitor, multiplies its potential. It is a commitment to the future, with a very specific objective: to continue telling the natural history of the world, from dinosaurs to galaxies, but in a contemporary key.

The building, designed by Studio Lang, which to the anger of the neighbors occupies part of the original extension of an adjoining park, is flooded with natural light by the skylights and skylights that dot the Grand Canyon that resembles; The diagonal pattern evokes the phenomenon of geological stratification. The new center also facilitates the visitor's journey by establishing continuity through an enclosure that occupies four blocks and connects buildings that were built over almost 150 years, creating 33 connections between 10 buildings. Similar in age to other venerable institutions, such as the Calcutta Museum of Natural History, a wonderful relic of wood and dust, the renovation of the New York museum has allowed it to incorporate, as Ellen Futter, president emeritus of the center, emphasizes, "the vision of the future as an imperative of the institution; the modern expression of a museum of natural history, which must address realities that are here, such as climate change and biodiversity", and that in the most veteran buildings, fruit of other times, were not barrunta. "The interdisciplinary character is an imperative of the institution," Futter said during the presentation.

A butterfly, seen through a magnifying glass while feeding in the vivarium of the Museum of Natural History in New York.Mary Altaffer (Associated Press/LaPresse)

The new wing of the Natural History Museum, with a height of six floors, is above all a response to curiosity, from which most of the questions of the human being and the answers of science are born, hence its role as a research center. "The Gilder Center is designed to invite exploration and discovery, which is not only emblematic of science, but also such an important part of being human. Their goal is to engage everyone—of all ages, backgrounds and abilities—to share in the excitement of learning about the natural world," said Jeanne Gang, founding director and partner of Studio Gang. The large atrium that serves as a lobby, flooded with natural light thanks to large skylights, "is inspired by the way wind and water sculpt landscapes in nature", curvatures, arches, caves, bridges that call for discovery.

The texture, color and fluid shapes of the atrium are inspired by the canyons of the American Southwest. Its striking structure, colossal yet intimate, has been achieved by spraying concrete directly onto reinforcing bars without traditional formwork in a technique known as "shotcrete", invented in the early twentieth century by museum naturalist and taxidermist Carl Akeley. The verticality of the atrium is also a key element of sustainability, as it provides natural light and air circulation within the building.

Species displayed in one of the rooms of the Museum of Natural History in New York, April 26Mary Altaffer (Associated Press/LaPresse)

Environmental sustainability, the organic forms of the building and the landscapes of discovery, understood as a human adventure in the environment, go hand in hand in the enclosure. With one goal, "to protect our planet and its myriads of life forms," the president emeritus noted in the presentation. To satisfy the neighbors of the neighborhood, complaining about having lost square meters of the secluded park now full of tulips, the renovation has included a new landscape project. The new wing of the museum also incorporates an entrance, which will help alleviate the multitudinous queues that every weekend, without exception, form in front of the most historic facade of the museum, the one facing Central Park. A museum that is not like the many others that mark New York, all magnificent, but the closest thing to the living room, or even the games room, for many generations: such is the identification of the New Yorker with the endearing mansion of the Upper West Side.

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Source: elparis

All life articles on 2023-05-12

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