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December 30, 2007
The New Museum of Contemporary Art in the Bowry, New York, which opened on December 1, makes most recent buildings in Australia look very ordinary indeed. It was designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, and the striking shape layers six off-kilter white boxes above a formerly grungy block on the Lower East Side:
This indicates the globalization of architecture, which is now pervasive. Do any architects still build in their native countries? Are any architects still concerned with a regional style in a globalised world?
The most striking feature inside the seven story museum is the complete absence of internal columns; the building is held together by a series of cross-bracings and the skylights allow natural light to filter through spaces where the stories are offset. The three main floors of galleries are airy but not particularly capacious, creating a cozy, modest context for the work. The fifth floor is given over to an educational center; the ground floor lobby features a bookstore, cafe and glass-walled gallery space; the basement level houses a 182-seat theater. On the seventh floor, an outdoor patio and glass enclosed event space will be used for installations and private soirees; and has a good view of downtown.
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Gary
This is minimalism in architecture.The see-through box is a recurrent High Modernist theme. There are some pictures on Flickr