Fracture

Arts and Crafts Museum to Piazza Santa Croce

Location
Florence, Italy
Program
Art and Crafts Museum
Year
2019
Status
Competition entry, 1st prize

The design proposal that I did as a part of my thesis explored the role of ornament in contemporary architecture and how it can express a building's time, place, and purpose. Through research on Florentine architecture, I identified key themes that give buildings local identity and examined how these could be meaningfully reinterpreted today. The design proposal was a new Arts and Crafts Museum for Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, combining references to traditional Florentine forms — such as arches and arcades — with a contemporary steel mesh and glass structure whose transparency changes with the viewing angle. The project demonstrated how ornament can strengthen identity and create more meaningful architecture.

This thesis recently led to an interview on the topic for an architectural television program “Rakkaani, kaupunki” that is currently broadcast on national TV.

The full thesis can be downloaded here (only in Finnish): urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202008196568

Fracture pavilion in Piazza Santa Croce, exterior render Fracture workshop space with view to Santa Croce Fracture underground approach toward the church facade Fracture museum interior with steel mesh ceiling Fracture massing and concept diagram Fracture ground floor plan Fracture basement floor plan Fracture main section through the piazza and underground museum Fracture structural section A Fracture structural section B