© Luke Hayes

• Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
• Location: Kensington, London SW7, United Kingdom
• Architects In Charge: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher
• Project Director: Charles Walker
• Area: 913.0 m2
• Project Year: 2016
• Photographs: Luke Hayes

• Project Senior Associate: Bidisha Sinha
• Project Associate: Shajay Bhooshan
• Project Team: Vishu Bhooshan, Henry Louth, David Reeves, Nhan Vo, Mattia Santi, Sai Prateik Bhasgi, Karthikeyan Arunachalam, Tommaso Casucci, Marko Margeta , Filippo Nassetti, Mostafa El Sayed, Suryansh Chandra, Ming Cheong, Carlos Parraga-Botero, Ilya Pereyaslavtsev, Ramon Weber
• Structure: Arup
• Mep: Arup
• Lighting Design : Arup Lighting
• Project Manager: Lendlease
• Cdm: Gardiner & Theobald
• Main Contractor : Paragon

© Luke Hayes

From the architect. It is a wonderful coincidence that we started work designing the Science Museum’s Mathematics Gallery in the bicentennial year of the birth of Ada Lovelace, a pioneering woman in the history of computers and of ‘poetic science’. Her inspirational influence on our approach to the design of the project, from inception to completion, cannot be overstated. Just as her Notes unravelled the abstract world of the analytical engine and its logic to generations beyond, we hope the design of the Mathematics Gallery complements the curatorial ambitions to inspire and engage further generations with the instinctive and physical aspects of mathematics. Collections like those housed within the Science Museum in London are instrumental in allowing the human mind to explore the many dimensions of innovation. The new group of objects on display in the Gallery is meticulously curated to narrate seemingly everyday moments in innovation driven by mathematics. 

Design Concept

© Luke Hayes

Design Concept

Our design for the Gallery responds to the ambition of David Rooney and his team to present mathematics not as an academic concept, but as a practice that influences technology and enables the environment around us to be transformed. Mathematics and its tools have always played a central role in the evolution of the human understanding of nature and the constructed world:
for example, Sir Isaac Newton’s methods to derive the laws of gravitation, Henri Poincaré’s extension of the Cartesian geometries to the planetary system and Lord Kelvin’s use of the mathematical technique of curve-fitting to predict the tides. 

© Luke Hayes

Mathematics forms one of the cornerstones of the foundations of computing and of scientific methods of research within architectural practices. It has had a profound influence on architectural shapes and forms (known as morphology) and their origins, basing them on sound structural principles. The enhancement of the performative aspects of design with respect to the built environment, its manufacture and ultimately the comfortable navigation by people within these environments, forms an integral part of building on these foundations. 

© Luke Hayes

With historical training in geometric methods to understand morphology, architects are well positioned to contribute to this collaborative endeavour of delivering information-rich settings that support the complex needs of humans within the built environment. A large proportion of our own work emerges from our fascination with mathematical logic and geometry, with advances in design technology enabling us to rethink form and space. The fluid surfaces and structures of each project thus generated are defined by scientific innovations. Our design for the Mathematics Gallery realises such an effort. 

© Luke Hayes

The successful flight of the Handley Page aeroplane in the 1929 Guggenheim competition, with its short take-off and landing distances, represents a triumphal moment in the accessibility of aviation to ordinary men and women. The spatial organisation of the Gallery places a central emphasis on this important product of British aviation, and the transformational capacity of mathematics and science, by taking inspiration from one of the key moments in the flight of the plane and the concepts of aerodynamics embodied within. 

© Luke Hayes

While mathematical logic and geometry can provide an intuitive model to understand the natural world, computational tools allow us to examine scenarios that enable a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms of nature. Using the principles of a mathematical approach known as computational fluid dynamics which acts as an organisational guide, the layout of the Gallery allows for the virtual lines of airflow to be manifested physically. The positioning of the more than 100 historical objects, and the production of robust arch-like benches using robotic manufacture, all embody the mathematical spirit of the brief. The resulting spatial experience created by these components within the Winton Gallery enables visitors to see some of the many actual and perceivable ways in which mathematics touches our lives. 

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Courtesy of Flickr user Richard under CC BY 2.0

With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the great World’s Fairs that had been held around the globe since the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 lost much of their momentum. With the specter of another global conflict looming like a stormcloud on the horizon in the latter half of the decade, prospects for the future only grew darker. It was in this air of uncertainty and fear that the gleaming white Trylon and Perisphere of the 1939 New York World’s Fair made their debuts, the centerpiece of an exhibition that presented a vision of hope for things to come.

Image via nyworldsfaircollections.tumblr.com (Public Domain)

The 1939 Fair was initially conceived in 1934 as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of the United States’ first president, George Washington, and the ratification of its constitution. However, the committee formed to plan the fair quickly changed its focus, and by 1936 had settled on a final theme that had little to do with American history: “Building the World of Tomorrow.” Pressure from sponsors ultimately led to the commercialization of this guiding theme, with much of the fair grounds given over to exhibitions of the consumer goods produced by the fair’s supporters; while the idealistic vision of the future remained, its basis was now abundant consumerism unrestrained by the harsh economic realities of the 1930s.[1]

The variety of exhibition halls and pavilions that arose on the site of a former dump in Flushing Meadows all followed this optimistic mandate, but the greatest manifestation of this ideal was to be found in the fair’s enormous centerpiece structures. The Trylon and Perisphere were, respectively, a three-sided obelisk and a sphere mounted on five steel pillars. Connecting and encircling the two buildings was a 950-foot ramp called the Helicline. The two steel-framed structures dominated the fair grounds: the Trylon stood 610 feet (186 meters) tall, and the Perisphere had a diameter of 180 feet (55 meters). Thanks to their enormous dimensions, the Trylon and Perisphere were visible from miles away, an effect intensified by the fact that both were painted pure white.[2,3]

A quarter section of the Perisphere reveals its steel skeletal structure. ImageImage via nyworldsfaircollections.tumblr.com (Public Domain)

While the forms of the 1939 Fair’s theme structures became iconic for their geometric simplicity, the design process was anything but simple; according to the fair’s delineator Hugh Ferriss, the sheer amount of studies in geometric form and materiality produced by the architects occupied the entire wall space of their drafting room.[4] Given the symbolic and visual prominence of the project, it is unsurprising that architects Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilhoux so exhaustively considered its formal possibilities. The eventual “spike and sphere” design on which they settled was intended to represent the finite and the infinite, a fitting analogy for the vision of a heady future built using existing technologies being presented by the fair at large. The names for each of the structures were based in Greek: while the tri in Trylon simply signified its three sides, the peri in Perisphere referred to the “all-around” view presented within its featureless white mass.[5]

Visitors entered the Perisphere by riding an escalator—at that time the world’s largest—from the Trylon. The exhibition space within the Perisphere, roughly twice the size of the Radio City Music Hall auditorium, was home to a diorama depicting an ideal city of the future.[6] This concept design, named “Democracity,” covered an area of approximately 11,000 square miles (28,500 square kilometers) and supported a population of 1.5 million people. It was primarily a vision of suburbia, one based on Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities model: a central business district named Centerton surrounded by industrial Millvilles, residential Pleasantvilles, park lands and agricultural fields, all interconnected by a network of modern automobile expressways. Visitors overlooked the tableau from moving platforms, while a light show above them displayed workers from a wide variety of trades coming together to build the World of Tomorrow.[7,8]

Image via nyworldsfaircollections.tumblr.com (Public Domain)

Despite the utopian promise embodied in the Trylon and Perisphere, their construction was hampered by the limitations of reality. The original dimensions of a 700 foot (213 meter) tall Trylon and 200 foot (61 meter) diameter Perisphere had to be scaled down due to budget restrictions, altering their proportions in the process. More noticeable, however, was the necessary compromise in building materials: while Harrison had intended to use concrete for the exterior cladding, he was ultimately forced to accept gypsum board and plastered with stucco. The resulting façade was not perfectly smooth as concrete would have been, detracting from the effect of the otherwise pure geometry.[9]

These compromises did little to detract from the public’s admiration. While the classical layout and “confused” aesthetic of most of the fair drew ire from contemporary critics, the abstract modernism of the Trylon and Perisphere was often singled out for praise.[10] As much a symbol of the 1939 Fair as the Eiffel Tower had been at the Exposition Universelle fifty years before, the Trylon and Perisphere were depicted on almost countless forms of advertising and memorabilia during the fair’s two-year run. The unmarked white shell of the Perisphere was used as a surface for projections each evening, transforming its stucco surface with images of cloudy skies, intricate patterns, or—on Halloween of 1939—a gargantuan Jack-o-Lantern. By day or by night, the ‘ball and bat,’ as they were humorously referred to, stood as the unmatched climax of the fair.[11]

A commemorative postage stamp was one of the many pieces of memorabilia to bear the likeness of the Trylon and Perisphere. ImageCourtesy of Wikimedia user Ecphora (Public Domain)

The promise of the 1939-40 World’s Fair in signifying a brighter future seemed to vanish before the fair itself had even closed. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War led to the closing of the Spanish Pavilion, and as Nazi Germany began its conquest of Europe, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France were forced to drop out as well.[12] When the Trylon and Perisphere themselves were dismantled so that their materials could be put to use in the war effort, it seemed as though the fair’s dream of a better tomorrow had been destroyed with them.[13] However, their influence would continue to be felt in the years that followed the war, as a new wave of development in the United States hearkened back to the prosperous suburban ideal presented in Democracity. The Trylon and Perisphere themselves, while no longer physically extant, have earned an enduring legacy as one of the world’s greatest symbols of hope for the future when there seemed to be no hope at all – a vision of the World of Tomorrow that has yet to be forgotten.[14]

Image via MetMuseum.org (Public Domain)

References

[1] Sennott, Stephen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century Architecture. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004. p929.
[2] Wurts, Richard, and Stanley Appelbaum. The New York World's Fair, 1939/1940 in 155 Photographs. New York: Dover Publications, 1977. p3.
[3] Yu, James. “Trylon and Perisphere.” University of Maryland Digital Libraries. Accessed November 15, 2016. [access].
[4] Ferriss, Hugh. The Power of Buildings: 1920-1950; a Master Draftsman’s Record. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2008. p64.
[5] Wood, Andrew F. New York’s 1939-40 World's Fair. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2004. p21.
[6] Wurts, p3.
[7] Klein, Maury. The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
[8] Wood, p23-25.
[9] Yu.
[10] Sennott, p929.
[11] Wood, p21-22.
[12] Goucher, Candice Lee., and Linda A. Walton. World History: Journeys from past to Present. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge, 2008.
[13] Burgess, Helen J. Highways of the Mind. University Of Pennsylvania Pr, 2014.
[14] Findling, John. “World’s Fair.” Encyclopedia Britannica. September 30, 2011. [access].

• Architects: Harrison and Fouilhoux
• Location: Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, New York, 11375, United States of America
• Architect: Wallace Harrison
• Architect: J. André Fouilhoux
• Delineator: Hugh Ferriss
• Project Year: 1939
• Photographs: Courtesy of Flickr user Richard, Samuel Gottscho via MetMuseum.org, via nyworldsfaircollections.tumblr.com, Courtesy of Wikimedia user Ecphora

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© Yousub Song

• Architects: 9cm
• Location: Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Project Team: Ahn Chulmin, Koo Junghwan, Lee Sangyoon, Namgoong Yong
• Area: 221.63 m2
• Photographs: Yousub Song

• Architect And Construction Manager: 9cm
• Construction: 9cm

© Yousub Song

This project located next to Hong-ik University, in Seogyo-dong Seoul, has the art department of reputation. So young artists have settled their small studios in old houses along with the university streets, and influenced arts, design, architecture, literature, and more. Then this town became a huge space for cultural exchange of young people and this activity changed old buildings into a brand new or unique remodeled buildings to fit artists’ lifestyle.

Diagrams

This town was no longer a residential area, but artists’ and young people’s cultural space. However, long-term and great alteration in the town led rise of land price and investment for profit. Architects and public officers tried to keep the cultural atmosphere from big investors to use the town as a real estate investment.

© Yousub Song

Our site was a two-story residence surrounded by commercial facility remodeled from a residence. In this condition, the client wanted to move out and change the use of the residence. He asked for a flexible space for variety programs such as bar, café, restaurant, and club that operates properly.

© Yousub Song

We suggest a renovation rather than a new building to reduce the budget and to produce unique space matching with surrounding contexts. There were two points to approach this project. The first was how we change this old red brick house to a brand new space for young people who set the trend of streets around. The second was to provide required programs by client at the brick-built structure that has limited space.

© Yousub Song

To solve the problem, limited space had to be changed to fit the new programs. Firstly, existing wall removed and installation of exterior deck for communication to street actively. Secondly, removing gable and planning exterior space on whole floor, where connect each other from first floor to roof.

Section

Removing roof to make outside space each floor for connecting all the floors from ground to roof garden which allows to use whole building to be used at once. And also, the walls inside and facing outside space were demolished to link inside and outside. 

© Yousub Song

The next step was to take off worn façade. Old red brick façade didn’t fit for young cultural space and we tried to find out materials that is not disparate from surrounding contexts. The upper mass was covered with Dark steel plate and bright grey brick finish in the lower mass for dark steel box to look floating and symbolic. There is a staircase covered with steel-mesh to the rooftop space and shows the way to a whole new experience with lighting cube tables enjoying the night club party.

Section

Inside materials are not very different from outside. Hairline stainless steel and dark steel plate is used for the bar, bathroom, and staircase to emphasize wall and inside small masses. We overcame such a low ceiling height for commercial use with cnc-cut organic patterned wood panel ceiling and plastic fabric carpet to make young and active space. 

© Yousub Song

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