Project Brief- To design an exhibition space as an expansion of the existing RISD museum based on Italo Calvino’s book Six Memos for the Next Millennium. To give flexibility to the museum’s curators to allow for the special exhibits of guest curators. Our ‘collector’ is not a real person, but instead exists in our minds as a 21st century version of the flâneur.
Studio: Narrative Museum with Brian Kernaghan
Project Duration: 1.5 Months
Completed: June 2013
Concept- To create a montage of interconnecting spaces.
Using Calvino’s book as the inspiration for my design, I thought of each of the six memos as separate spaces in the museum, which are connected by a narrative or a circulation system; between them and through the museum.
The RISD museum itself is a montage of different buildings, built at different times, and its existing alleyways and bridges continue as a concept in my design. The first memo is lightness which starts right at the top and is connected to the existing bridge of the RISD museum. The last chapter on “Consistency”, which was left incomplete, is the special exhibition space. I also played with the idea of duality of each memo. For example “lightness” vs “darkness”. Quotes above the doors guide the flâneur through the space.
