POP-UP GALLERY
POP-UP GALLERY
Community-based project for a 501c3 non-profit art organization on the Lower East Side, NYC.
The Pop-Up Gallery is a temporary, modular, wooden prefab structure to be placed in a vacant urban lot in New York City that serves not only as a display for art, but also as a dynamic community venue for events, cultural and educational workshops, lectures, film screenings or any other neighborhood cultural activities convening around local interests.
The structure is designed to be a modern showcase filled with natural light and an open, column-free interior. The main focus of the freestanding building is providing flexibility and usability for both the interior and exterior in order to host different activities. It also sets the goal to design a high-performance building for energy efficiency and incorporate sustainable systems.
The modular structure consists in a revealing wooden frame that accentuates its lightness and holds together a dynamic system of operable wood and glass floor-to-ceiling sliding panels around its perimeter. A major design feature is a green roof that replaces and emphasizes the footprint of a reclaimed green space and could suggest its use as a community garden. The building is elevated from the ground and connected to the land through an ADA-compliant ramp.
The façades are articulated by the sliding wooden and glass panels which also function to make the building as translucent or opaque to its surroundings, depending on the use of the space. Artists can use the skin of the building and its moving panels as a “canvas” for artistic exploitation – a practice that it is already in use on the facades or sides of many buildings in New York City.
The Pop-Up Gallery is aimed at bringing energy and community to an under-utilized plot of land in its urban context, addressing various socioeconomic issues by offering programs designed to demonstrate the role art and architecture can play in a neighborhood's revitalization.