Multiplication vs. Unification is a final thesis project by Junfeng Wang, done at GSD Harvard. The starting point of this addition design was to identify a geometric system in the existing building – the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg, Canada, which would be further used as a motivation for generating future geometry. This way, the addition inherits the deep gene of the existing one; therefore it is possible to generate a close geometric relationship between the old and the new one.

The addition area is located at the rear side of the building, and it takes two triangular tips as a main geometric motivation, further creating a radial pattern which forms the basic plan shape for the addition. Each floor of the addition part follows this basic geometric system while they are interacting with the existing gallery space.

The idea of the whole research under which this project was done was to create pedagogy which will address several theoretical conundrums of contemporary architecture. Here, particularly, the pedagogy tries to deal with the relationship between multiplication and unification in architecture, namely how to unify different elements in architecture while still preserving the diversity they have produced.

The first task is to compose one façade, the geometry of which unifies the following spatial typologies from the ground floor up: semi-urban residual space, cellular galleries and open plan gallery space. The second task is to add a strong and consistent formal order, a spiral or radial progression, to the building and force it to mutate by meeting other formal or programmatic demands. The mutation would produce composite forms of duality or even multiplicity. The new formal language also tackles the way the building touches the ground when it tries to create the first spatial typology, which is the urban residual space.