Meridian

University of Pennsylvania: Master of Architecture

ARCH501: Design Studio I

Instructor: Andrew Saunders

Location: Garrison, NY

Meridian curates the gallery along a meandering mass whose arcs and tangents guide visitors through space. These geometries are derived through careful analysis of Russel Wright’s American Modern collection, specifically the Covered Sugar Bowl. Meridian’s paths interact with the surrounding landscape, at moments pushing it away and at others taking it in. Its galleries are formed through a series of terraces that guide the user down the quarry, leading to the bay and creating a direct connection with the original home. The project serves as a criticism of the binary inside-outside relationship present in both Modern and classical architecture. Meridian not only blurs this relationship, but outspreads it, extending it throughout the entire project. Meridian is continuous and unbroken. It embodies the exterior, interior, and the lining. It is both the inside and the outside.

Continuity is wrought through a sculptural form that inverts into itself, creating an interweaving of interior and exterior spaces. Though presented as a whole, the building provides two contrasting experiences. One moving along the exterior gallery will find himself enclosed, a user in the interior will seamlessly wander outside, potentially unaware. The paths surround and envelop voluminous masses which act as additional galleries and ancillary spaces. The mass itself is a veil in which an entirely new volume emerges, and with it new meanings and interpretations.