Broad Art Museum at MSU

Place: East Lansing, MI, Country: United States
Owner: Michigan State University
Design architect: Zaha Hadid Architects- London

Vibrant is a fascinating word. It can be used to describe people, such as Eli and Edithe Broad; institutions, such as the Michigan State University, and can be applied to buildings as well.
It is the exact definition that comes to mind when looking at the Broad Art Museum at the Michigan State University, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Realized in 2012 thanks to a donation by philanthropists and art enthusiasts Eli and Edithe Broad, this contemporary art museum is hard to confuse with any other. Its pleated stainless steel panels give it a quite peculiar appearance, intended to “reflect the topographic and circulatory characteristics of its surrounding landscape. Its outer skin echoes these different directions and orientations – giving the building an ever-changing appearance that arouses curiosity yet never quite reveals its content.“ (Zaha Hadid Architects)

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The building is located on the northern edge of the MSU campus, facing Grand River Avenue, thus acting both physically and ideally as a connection between the campus, with its brick buildings and quiet areas crossed by footpaths, and the adjacent urban landscape.

The reflective skin of the building copes with this different kinds of perception, by reflecting them in various manners, depending on time of day, season and weather conditions, and somehow manipulating and incorporating their essence into the museum.

On a floor area of 46,000 square feet, divided in three levels, the museum includes exhibition spaces, an educational facility, a works on paper study center, administration offices, a café and a shop as well as a public plaza and a sculpture garden.

Internally, more “introflexed” spaces alternate to areas when the visual relationship with the surrounding, through the pleated envelope, is evident; this is the case of the lobby, the education wing and the One West Gallery, an impressive double-height space, suitable for large artworks and installations.

Reference:www.inexhibit.com/case-studies/eli-edythe-broad-art-museum-michigan-state-university-zaha-hadid/