Kunsthaus Graz
Morphosis

Image courtesy Morphosis

Our proposal for Kunsthaus Graz is driven by the tensions within two fundamental ideas; one urban and the other programmatic. The demands on this institution as part of the existing fabric of the city are two-fold; one requiring continuity, the preservation of the values of the found, and the other demanding the initiation of the potentialities of the present. 

Our proposal resolves this seeming dichotomy through a conscious confrontation between an urban connectedness and the more autonomous, interpretative qualities of an architecture of idiosyncrasy, produced through a series of negotiations.

/Morphosis

Image courtesy Morphosis

Image courtesy Morphosis

Image courtesy Morphosis

Image courtesy Morphosis

The simultaneous place-making and hovering of the main gallery exemplifies this condition, inducing a situation of integration (the public is engaged within this intermediary zone, the space of Lendkai) and detachment (the gallery as metaphor/ barge/ ship floating on sky/ river.) 

Programmatically, this project explores the confluence of the opposition of specificity and neutrality.  Active, fluid, socially dynamic spaces define the public connective tissue, while the galleries offer a blank white canvas to the artist, committed to a neutrality, inviting interpretations by the curatorial staff and by artists to activate the space. 

The main gallery hall, which by its mere presence provides a venue which is unique to Graz, opens the possibility of hosting more ambitious exhibitions that require large and unbroken spaces.

/Morphosis