Circle

The client's brief was to unite art, culture, and nature. The ultimate goal was to create a true art house, where nature, art, and humanity could be one.

We wanted to bring nature into the space through its phenomena. Capturing light, wind, and materiality, we wanted to create a space, an interstitial space, that would house a showcase for art, and where the interior merges with the exterior, nature and artifice resonate and enter into a symbiosis that brings out the culture of living.

Being there as a presence harmonizes with the environment and begins to vibrate and merge with the body of water from which the building emerges. This vibration harmonizes the environment and creates a place of calm and silence. The silence and apparent coolness are animated by the presence of man, and through natural phenomena, they awaken the senses and open the soul to a sense of belonging, stimulating culture.

The project originated within the Tiergarten park, in a location known by the name of the sculpture positioned at the center of the space. Amazone zu Pferde had to remain within the project; given the circular shape of the space, we conceived of a truly circular building, yet one that would create a void. Within this void, at the center of this void, the statue of Amazone zu Pferde marks time and regulates the proportions of the space.

A convex roof defines the architecture and appears suspended in the air, thus accentuating the sense of suspension that contrasts with its materiality. A reinforced concrete wall delimits the space, and a glass wall open towards the center forms a gallery between the interior and the exterior, where art can be displayed, as in a glass case, lending it a sense of sacredness.