This delightfully bizarre pile of renderings comes from the minds at Labscape?so, uh, what is it? It's something called the NYC Eco Tower Museum, meant to be home to a museum about immigration after the 60s. If it looks more like some kind of rising sea creature, well, it certainly isn't meant to be a traditional museum. The architects' proposal calls for a building that isn't connected to the city grid, instead using photovoltaic cells, wind and water turbines, and other green elements to be entirely self-sufficient. Of course, the whole thing is also supposed to capture symbolically the immigrant's experience of arriving in an unfamiliar country. "The feeling of being completely lost, the change in surroundings, adaptation, isolation, integration, growing linguistic and cultural understanding, the euphoria of starting life anew and the discovery of the 'New World' were the basis for the architectural development of the museum," the architects explain.
That goal, though, contradicts the guided, logical layout of a typical museum. "The first aim was to banish the monotony that is very typical of towers," the architects explain in their project description. "We therefore created for the visitor a feeling of disorientation, a change of scenery, and also a lack of guidance in finding their way from one storey (or programme) to another." Sounds?fun?
The green elements are similarly quirky and multi-purpose. The plans call for a building made out of weather-resistant concrete, part of which would be assembled in a factory in advance of on-site work. There would be green terraces and a greenhouse, and the photovoltaic cells are meant to generate free energy and make the facade design a little more interesting. The skin of the building would double as a water purification system that would remove bacteria, viruses, and other icky and undesirable particles from river water so that it could be used for drinking. So at least museum goers won't go thirsty in their confusion.
· Official website: Labscape [labscape.org]
· Architectural Craziness archive [Curbed]
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