Farma for Art near New York
About an hour and a half drive from New York City, near Salt Point, there is a building aptly named Artfarm. A private client, a collector primarily of contemporary Chinese art, whose collection parts are loaned to galleries in New York and Beijing, decided to build a dignified space for his collection on his land near a family residence from the 1980s.
The mass of the building, conceived as a fully functional gallery space, is divided into variously sized exhibition halls, accompanied by office areas and necessary backup and storage spaces.
The external form is defined by the technology of prefabricated steel building elements, which are commonly used in this area primarily for agricultural buildings – hence the name Artfarm – art farm.
The austerity and structure of the metal shell of the building, along with the division of the object into three differently sized masses, which are set on concrete foundation slabs and height-wise follow the slope of the surrounding landscape, creates a surreal impression. Different height levels of the main exhibition spaces are connected by a cascade of ramps positioned along their axis.
The main communication route leading through the center of the building along its entire length ensures both clarity and orientation as well as easy handling when moving larger art pieces. The narrowed spaces of the ramps connecting the main exhibition halls are then purposefully used as picture galleries.
Contact with the surrounding landscape is offered to gallery visitors only through three small windows, or rather skylights, at the points of height differences of the main masses. Natural northern lighting, supported by lines of fluorescent lights, richly illuminates the austere exhibition space.
The exterior of the building hardly hints at its true purpose and content, making the contrast between the stark facade and the purity and brightness of the interior even stronger.
Rare and often fragile artworks place considerable demands on the optimal climate of the interior space, which surely was a challenge for the architects in a location with significant thermal fluctuations throughout the year. The solution proved to be the concept of a hermetically sealed insulated envelope, which minimized the influence of the external environment to such an extent that the heating and cooling system is only used exceptionally when necessary or for optimal setting of the indoor temperature. There is no overheating of the interior even during really hot summer days.
location: Salt Point, New York / USA
client: Christophe W. Mao
architect: HHF architects + Ai Weiwei
built area: 373 m²
budget: € 250,000
project: August 2006 – February 2007
realization: March 2007 – June 2008
photography: Iwan Baan
The mass of the building, conceived as a fully functional gallery space, is divided into variously sized exhibition halls, accompanied by office areas and necessary backup and storage spaces.
The external form is defined by the technology of prefabricated steel building elements, which are commonly used in this area primarily for agricultural buildings – hence the name Artfarm – art farm.
The austerity and structure of the metal shell of the building, along with the division of the object into three differently sized masses, which are set on concrete foundation slabs and height-wise follow the slope of the surrounding landscape, creates a surreal impression. Different height levels of the main exhibition spaces are connected by a cascade of ramps positioned along their axis.
The main communication route leading through the center of the building along its entire length ensures both clarity and orientation as well as easy handling when moving larger art pieces. The narrowed spaces of the ramps connecting the main exhibition halls are then purposefully used as picture galleries.
Contact with the surrounding landscape is offered to gallery visitors only through three small windows, or rather skylights, at the points of height differences of the main masses. Natural northern lighting, supported by lines of fluorescent lights, richly illuminates the austere exhibition space.
The exterior of the building hardly hints at its true purpose and content, making the contrast between the stark facade and the purity and brightness of the interior even stronger.
Rare and often fragile artworks place considerable demands on the optimal climate of the interior space, which surely was a challenge for the architects in a location with significant thermal fluctuations throughout the year. The solution proved to be the concept of a hermetically sealed insulated envelope, which minimized the influence of the external environment to such an extent that the heating and cooling system is only used exceptionally when necessary or for optimal setting of the indoor temperature. There is no overheating of the interior even during really hot summer days.
location: Salt Point, New York / USA
client: Christophe W. Mao
architect: HHF architects + Ai Weiwei
built area: 373 m²
budget: € 250,000
project: August 2006 – February 2007
realization: March 2007 – June 2008
photography: Iwan Baan
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