Tuesday, May 1, 2012

California Academy of Sciences


Green Guide of Global Awareness 

in Postmodern Architecture 


Amy Dempsey once described Postmodernist architecture as “willfully individual in terms of style” but adventurous in spirit (Dempsey 269). The last quarter of the 20th century has indeed marked the rise of a new era in the history of architectural design that in many ways has become an adventure of metamorphosis. Long gone were the days of precisely carved moldings of Renaissance ornaments, the heroic elegance of tall Neo-Classical columns and industrial minimalism of Modernism. Postmodernism, however, was not a revolution, brushing aside the styles and preferences of the times past, but an evolution, a synthesis of all the technological advances and creative artistic innovations that have fueled the pace of art history and moved it forwards. The California Academy of Sciences by Renzo Piano is an exemplary archetype of the adaptation of styles, science and social awareness programs that characterizes Postmodernist construction in progressive time of global integration.

Reopened in 2008, after three years of ground-up construction, the California Academy of Sciences is a sight to behold. Starting from its façade, the building surprises with the selection of materials. The steel frame of the grand entrance that flows in the air like a weightless cube supports what seems like a complete transparency of glass (Figure 1). The row of 36-feet-high steel columns holds the canopy roof that looks air thin. But what intrigues, is the backdrop of concrete forming the rest of the building, giving it reinforcement while continuing its elongated rectangular shape. Two stylistically different walls, containing no windows and lining the two exhibition halls, hug the glass curtain walls of the entrance. The wall on the right is a simple poured-concrete wall while the wall on the left is the Academy’s original Neo-Classical limestone wall that has survived the earthquake of 1989. According to Amy Dempsey, “Postmodernism is both a rejection of modernism and a continuation of it” characterized by “diversity of materials, styles, structures and environments” (Dempsey 269). Even prior to entering the museum, visitors can see the Postmodernist characteristics of the California Academy of Sciences building: while the minimalist glass entrance of the building and simple factory-like concrete walls radiate Modernism, the overall symmetry of the buildings with its steel colonnades and the carved limestone vault are references to Neo-Classicism. The limestone walls bearing reliefs of Doric columns as well as a restored African Hall, full of original dioramas and ornamented vaulted ceilings, are a reminder of Neo-Classical style of the old Academy brought into symbiosis with the flat roof and linear forms of the new Modernist building. The lobby entrance is reminiscent of Mies van der Rohe creations with their Miesian formula of “exposed metal-framed glass box based on a grid” (Dempsey 144). The California Academy of Sciences is an example of Postmodernism at its best, a fusion of two seemingly contradictory styles that nevertheless work together in harmony, uniting function with aesthetics, the technological advances of the new and the elegance and beauty of the old.

Figure 1

As the visitors pour inside the glass lobby, they notice the multitude of recycled steel bars 
pushing the roof upwards into the sky, erasing the separation of the horizon outside from the exhibition spaces inside. The entire space of the lobby seems to breathe with the see-through glass walls opening up into the lush scenery of the Golden Gate Park. The rows of narrow windows line the top of the building letting the warm air escape making it a temperature-balanced environment. The focus on the unity with nature is emphasized and present throughout the museum. Even though the two 90-ft tall spheres of planetarium and rainforest are heavy-set and space-cutting structures, their positioning within the museum works to their stylistic and functional advantage (Figures 2&3). The planetarium sits on the pool of coral reef, with skate fish and baby sharks lurking in the waters, while the spiraling ramp takes visitors from the base to the top of the rainforest’s microclimates. The incorporation of the park landscapes, animals and climate variations, however, are not the only scientific explorations the young and adults are exposed to in the California Academy of Sciences. Since 1853, the Academy’s motto is “to explore, explain and protect the natural world,” [1] and with this mission the museum has become the center for interactive educational programs with over 20 daily events per day, from penguin feedings to specimen spotlights. There is a working laboratory with see-through walls within the building premises where passing visitors can observe the scientists busy at work, collecting samples or analyzing the chosen specimen under the microscope. Under the roof of the Academy, the visitor no longer only wishes for the Modernist integration of science and technology into architecture, he lives this dream in a feasible way by walking the floors and observing scientific discoveries as they are being made.   

 Figure 2

Figure 3

In their book, Learning from Las Vegas, Robert Venturi and his colleagues argue that Postmodernism has come to existence at the time when “complex programs and settings require complex combinations of media beyond the purer architectural triad of structure, form and light at the service of space” suggesting “the architecture of bold communication rather than one of subtle expression” (Venturi, Brown, Izenour 9). Social interaction in search of answers to global issues becomes the central theme of both Postmodernist thinking and the particular example of the California Academy of Sciences. The effort at social awareness is seen throughout the building, from its construction choices to the free “Green Guide” pamphlets available to visitors explaining sustainability in easy to understand terms (Figure 4). The California Academy of Sciences is a masterpiece of environmental sustainability. As multiple educational boards within the museum explain, ninety percent of demolition materials used in constructing the building were recycled and used for new projects within the museum. Aquarium salt water comes from Pacific Ocean and water tubing is embedded in the concrete floor to heat and cool the entire building while conserving energy. About ten percent of the energy itself comes from solar panels installed on the roof of the building. Recycled concrete is mixed with fifty percent industrial by-products, such as blast furnace slag and coal fly ash, cutting the cost of materials as well as their waste. Recycled jean scraps are used for heat insulation promoting repurposing of the used materials for various construction goals. The social awareness unfolds not only via multiple media of written materials and the Academy’s educational programs and films but is also felt through the walls and floors of the museum itself, marking complete Postmodernist synthesis of communication with architectural form and space.

Figure 4

When one analyzes the California Academy of Sciences it is hard to remove oneself from the Modernist notion of architecture as pure “application of mathematical and physical laws” described by Ventury, Brown and Izenour (Venturi, Brown, Izenour 133). Indeed, the Academy seems like a passionate scientist’s greatest object of desire with everything made of science and for science alone, incorporating the laws of nature and the rules of reason. Science, popularly believed to be a rather strict and orderly system of knowledge, one might think would leave very little place for the creative symbolism of the artistic nature. Yet the California Academy of Sciences surprises again. Maya Lin’s sculpture, Where the Land Meets the Sea, gently embracing the roof of the West Terrace, is a vision of an artist who incorporates symbolism based on technology to show how intertwined everything is in the natural world (Figure 5). The form of the sculpture is based on topography of San Francisco Bay near Angel Island and Golden Gate Bridge. The data for this topography mapping is based on the U.S Geological survey on a scale of 1:700 with a claimed vertical exaggeration of 5 times above sea level and 10 times below. The adjacent columns are marked to indicate sea level at 18 feet above the café terrace. The sculpture follows the weightless feeling of the building’s open plan and flat glass roof, forming a perpendicular body to it that highlights its measurement scale while surrounding landscape becomes a natural backdrop and grounds for pondering its deeper meaning. 

Figure 5

The façade, roofline, interior structure and symbolic sculptures of the museum reinforce its Postmodernist character, highlighting multiple stylistic adaptations and integration of form and function into the great realm of public communication and environmental education. However, when one speaks of the California Academy of Sciences, the significance of its roof becomes imminent in understanding the project as a wholesome vision of the modern age. In his building workshop, Renzo Piano points out the metaphor for the entire project: “I saw it as topography. The idea was to cut a piece of the park, push it up 35 feet – to the height of the old buildings – and then put whatever was needed underneath.”[2] The rooftop, indeed, looks like the Golden Gate Park surrounding the museum has never stopped, confronted by the rising edifice of the Academy, but simply rolled over it, like a gentle wave, leaving its lavish greenery behind.

The mounds of earth, hollow inside, overlap the spheres contained within, creating waves that could be a visual symbolism for the hilly terrain of San Francisco area. The roof is a living laboratory observing many plants and animals inhabiting it. Photovoltaic cells, installed on the edges of the roof convert sunlight to electricity as skylight windows open and close automatically to accommodate the temperature shifts within the interior of the museum (Figures 6&7). Karen E. Steen meticulously describes the environmental impact of the green roof in her Green Architecture’s Grand Experiment article:

The planted roof is not just a wildlife corridor; it also insulates the building, reducing energy consumption, and absorbs 98 percent of storm-water runoff. Meanwhile, Piano’s ‘waves’ mean that most of the building doesn’t need air-conditioning: cool air from outside flows down the hills and into the building’s central piazza, while hot air on the exhibit floor rises, hugging the planetarium and rain forest, and is released through automated skylights in the hills.[3]
  
The roof, thus, becomes both a functional structural necessity, prompted by environmental awareness, and the symbol of unity with nature surrounding it. It becomes a living and breathing organism that regulates and safeguards natural resources while using them to survive as well. It is a symbol of total symbiosis of give and take with nature that speaks to the visitors of the California Academy of Sciences by its own example and creates awareness for the pressing issues of sustainability at the time of alarming shortages of natural resources in the global community. The California Academy of Sciences aims to awaken its visitors and express the experience of living at the time of change and facing it with confidence of a gentle natural scientist, observing yet avoiding disturbance to the environment of its target specimens.

Figure 6

Figure 7

It is important to note that California Academy of Sciences falls under the category of the late Postmodernist work that strongly contrasts with the tacky color mishmash and stylistic extravaganza of its Las Vegas counterparts of the late 1960’s vividly described by Venturi, Brown and Izenour. Instead of drawing attention to its function and relevance by the garish flamboyancy of signs and symbols, the Academy concentrates on the merging of energy and resource-saving scientific advances, spatial efficiency and environmental awareness. It creates favorable educational environment that is interactive and promotes a two-way communication of scientific dialogue between the audience and resources instead of its one-way alternative of signage dominance. It is still eclecticism that defines Postmodernism, but that of the most advantageous concepts and innovative ideas put to use in the place that combines public educational program and aesthetically harmonious unity with nature. Venturi claims that people are never truly free from the past and illustrates his point by quoting Alan Colquhoun: “we are not free from the forms of the past, and from the availability of these forms as typological models, but that, if we assume we are free, we have lost control over a very active sector of our imagination and our power to communicate with others.”[4] So let us not forget and sacrifice imagination but, instead, put in to good use in promoting global integration of communicational “structure”, educational “form” and finally shine that “light” on the global issues, creating awareness while promoting esthetical principles of architecture and art. 
                                                   
Bibliography:

Dempsey, Amy. Postmodernism. Styles, Schools & Movements. London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2010

Venturi, Robert; Brown, Denise Scott; Izenour, Steven. Learning from Las Vegas. The MIT Press, 1977

Steen, Karen E. (2008) Green Architecture’s Grand Experiment. Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved Dec 1, 2011 from http://metropolismag.com/story/20080917/green-architectures-grand-experiment-part-1-the-building

Pearson, Clifford A. (2009). California Academy of Sciences: Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Architectural Record. Retrieved Nov 27, 2011 from http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/portfolio/archives/0901academy-1.asp

Colquhoun, Alan. Typology and Design Method. Arena, Journal of the Architectural Association. June 1967. pp. 11-14 Quoted in Venturi, Robert; Brown, Denise Scott; Izenour, Steven. Learning from Las Vegas. p. 131

California Academy of Sciences official website: http://calacademy.org



[1] California Academy of Sciences website; “Our Mission” section
[2] Pearson, Clifford A. California Academy of Sciences: Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
[3] Steen, Karen E. Green Architecture’s Grand Experiment.
[4] Colquhoun, Alan. Typology and Design Method


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