The auditorium has 3 vertical glass surfaces that give it its open and transparent character: the angled facade along the passage on the South, and the facades on the North and the West. The program for the auditorium curtain was to darken the space, maintaining the transparency of the facades to a certain degree and therewith the visual connection to the outside. By using architectural drawings from Hans Vredeman de Vries Inside Outside suggests another space within or outside the space of OMA’s architecture, accentuating different perspectives through lines that are perforated.
For the design they zoomed in on the perspective studies of columns of Dutch artist/architect Hans Vredeman de Vries dating back to the 17th Century. Details of these etchings are digitally printed on both sides of the curtain, suggesting a classical landscape outside the auditorium. Seen from outside the columns create the alienating suggestion of a classical foundation that supports OMA’s modern architecture.
To create extra depth and more openness in this curtain Inside Outside added perforations to the original perspective lines. As the same image is printed on both sides of the curtain – the inside drawing mirrored to the outside’s image – the perforations will only match with the perspective lines of the drawings on the inside, creating an apparent random pattern of perforations on the outside image. To create total transparency in the space when the curtain is not in use, it envelops the stairs (that lead to the auditorium’s balcony) in its storage configuration, thus leaving the glazed facades completely uncovered.
The AAP forum is used as a space where students can work. The technical program for this curtain is to reduce glare, reflect the sunlight and function as a view filter. The design for the AAP Forum is a continuation of the Vredeman de Vries concept for the Sibley Hall. Here, however, Inside Outside printed another selection of zoom-ins of the original etchings onto an open netting, so that the image is more mysterious. Here too, perforations framed by metal rings create openings along the given perspective lines.
In the auditorium the print of columns suggests another space outside the auditorium luring the users to gaze outside. In the AAP Forum we reverse the focus by putting a digital print of an architectural drawing on the exterior of the curtain only, creating the suggestion of other and different spaces in the AAP forum. This image is printed in a dark brown color that suits the brick wall of the Sibley Hall while challenging its architecture.
Designer: Petra Blaisse.
Team Inside Outside: Peter Niessen, Kim Olde Loohuis, Miki Sato, Francesca Sartori, Remco Swart, Barbara Pais, Yukie Futagawa.
Venue: Millstein Hall, Faculty of Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York,USA.
Date: 2007- March 2012.
Client: Cornell University.
Architect: OMA, NY.
Scope of Work: Darkening curtain designs for Sibley Hall auditorium and glare control curtains for AAP forum curtains.
