Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

BIG+Allard Architecture, along with three other international firms, has unveiled their proposal for ArtA, a cultural hub on the edge of the Rhine in Arnhem, the Netherlands. ArtA will house the Museum Arnhem and the Focus Film Theater and reconnect the City with its waterfront. BIG proposes the two programs to be merged with a public Art Plaza – making ArtA a vibrant public building for art, public life, education and recreation.

ArtA brings 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. The architects 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 paradoxical challenge – most successful contemporary art galleries are characterized by the spatial qualities of industrial warehouses – large open floor plans with generous ceiling heights and great flexibility for internal division and daylight control. The film theater is inherently a black box – an introvert space for contemplation and focus.

ArtA fused 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. 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 creation – organic and rational, transparent and solid, unique and flexible, extrovert and introvert at the same time.

An elegant and simple twist of the building volume generates a diagonal art plaza that connects the ground floor with the root top, while blurring the boundaries between the two programs.

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

Big, bjarke ingels, Netherlands, Amsterdam, waterfront, arta, Allard Architecture, competition, museum, theater, film

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