Architecture in the Public Interest

Art as Shelter; Raleigh, North Carolina

Tonic Design

Designed and built as an integral component of the North Carolina Museum of Art Park’s ‘art-in-service’ projects program, ‘Art as Shelter’ offers visitors a sheltered place to sit and reflect upon the museum sculpture park and public greenway. Viewed as an object in the landscape or experienced from within, the pavilion offers magnificent veiled panoramic views of the surrounding landscape.

Large clear spans promote the use as an indoor/outdoor classroom for teaching about art and nature. Docent-led student groups utilize the space as a studio; where folding tables, stools, and art-making materials are stored in frosted-acrylic clad boxes that double as benches and nighttime illumination.
The pavilion is wrapped in varying widths of perforated metal bands, which offer experiences that change with seasons, light and vantage point of the viewer. The metallic “skin” reflects its natural surroundings by taking on colors of the grass and sky, or at times disappearing into a moiré pattern of light and shadow.
An exercise in efficient and accurate construction techniques, the kit-of-parts system allowed for the components to be fabricated in the shop and field assembled like ‘Tinkertoys’. Metal, both steel and aluminum, was selected for its structural, aesthetic and recycled content qualities.

Construction Cost in whole dollars $62,000
Photographs JWest Productions