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Metamorphic Museum

Metamorphic Museum is an organic and welcoming virtual museum designed under PACADEMY’s “Meta-Fluid Studio” with Mariana Cabugueira.
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Metamorphic Museum is a virtual museum designed by G1 members; Daryna Chernyshova, Montez, and Muhammad Chowdhury. The team created this project under PACADEMY’s  “Meta-Fluid Studio” with Mariana Cabugueira. When the Metamorphic Museum team started their project, they studied where Plot 1 was situated and how near they were to towers, water, and other structures on the base. They chose the virtual museum as their building typology as it was an early favorite. They then discussed core design principles their team shared and design shapes they wanted to explore. From these initial discussions and idea dumps, the team landed on some clear themes and imagery.

There are four main themes: “local landscape, walking parks, indoor and outdoor art experiences, organic colors and forms”. According to the Metamorphic Museum team,

- They admired structures that responded to the local landscape and context
- They wanted to include walking parks to heighten the community aspects of art appreciation in their plot
- Indoor and Outdoor art experiences and the accompanying forms were particularly interesting to them since they would allow a visitor to have diverse art spaces
- They didn’t want their museum to be sterile, so they made sure to consider organic colors and forms

The project’s inspirations are merging into the local landscape, walking parks, art allowances on the facade to create indoor and outdoor art experiences, organic colors, and forms.


Concepts

Tectonism: Tectonism is the faulting, folding, or other deformations of the planet’s outer layer. This concept was a basis to begin our thinking of how to create structures that organically merged into the landscape.

Waves: Waves embody the fluidity theme of our studio and easily inspire how we built our structures that transitioned from the waterside of our plot.

Responsive design: Architectural projects that respond to the local context, culture, and itself in unique and helpful ways were our favorites. The team had to figure out how to give their plot a sense of responsiveness even in a simulated world.

Stages
The design process adhered to the “Discovery, Define, Develop and Deliver” stages.

Discovery: We began with a sprint to share ideas on forms, concepts, colors, imagery, and example museum projects that would help us address how we may build our virtual museum.

Define: After their sprint, they synthesized their ideas into what structures to focus on and how to divide their plot. We agreed we wanted the structures to grow in height as a visitor traveled further into our plot, starting from the coast of the water. This decision allowed us not only to provide spaces to accommodate varying art experiences but also to demonstrate structural fluidity in many forms.

The result of this stage was a rough plot plan that included an ambiguous community area of several structures, an imposing tower and base to house more permanent collections, and a bridge to connect them.

Develop & Deliver: During this stage, we were heads down in Maya. We divided our development needs into 3 parts and had a rough draft to deliver to Mariana. We received our feedback, and with additional time, we went through 2 additional iterations where we added more details, increased cohesion, and explored how we incorporated more of our inspiration and concepts.

Modeling

The Metamorphic Museum team used Maya exclusively for modeling. Maya was great for quickly prototyping their structures’ fluid shapes before adding more fine details. Waves and tectonism were core concepts of their project, so they were constantly figuring out the most pleasant and appropriate ways to build their designs. The ease of creating and iterating through shapes that folded, twisted, and stretched gave them creative freedom to create their soft landscape and the exoskeleton of their more extensive base. 

Visualization

The team used Unreal Engine for their final renders and Rhino to provide plans and elevations of their site. They completed their modeling and transitioned to final renders by using Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine allowed them to preview a live render of their site and how the materials, lights, and size reacted in a simulated world.


Key Feature

The key feature of the Metamorphic Museum is the visibility that allows visitors to locate themselves throughout the entire space. The team wanted to ensure their plot felt organic and welcoming to many different people entering the world of art appreciation. Seeing where you are in the plot and the varying spaces you can travel to for indoor and outdoor art experiences aligns with that mission.

Conclusion

For Metamorphic Museum Team, participating in this studio was a great experience. The team was able to quickly build their culture and reach a level of understanding to work together. Mariana and Hamid gave them free rein on what they made. Although daunting at first, building their Maya know-how was rewarding, going off on architecture & design tangents. After that, creating a finished product they are excited to present.

About the team’s experience: Daryna wasn’t familiar with Maya but quickly created a concept that Mariana enjoyed and highlighted how they could produce indoor and outdoor spaces beyond the typical forms they see in buildings. Montez came into this project without architecture or Maya experience but could donate significantly to the project while learning the specifics of the tools. Muhammad was deadest on improving his Maya skills and reached a new level, something to be proud of.

 
 

Credits:
Studio workshop by PAACADEMY
Studio title: Meta-Fluid
Lead by: Mariana Cabugueira
Project name: Meta Stadium
Students: Daryna Chernyshova, Montez, and Muhammad Chowdhury
Date: From May 15 to July 15, 2022

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