MEDIA INFLUENCED AND PERCEPTION OF

ARCHITECTURE & SPACE

SUBMITTED BY
GREETY MARIA THOMAS
1 C
Place: Graz
Country: Austria
Owner: Universal museum
Architectural Design:
Peter Cook , Colin Fournier
Façade design: realities; united.

The Kunsthaus Graz, also known by

the name “Friendly Alien”, was built in
2003; a paradoxical link between
technologies associated with future and
the old feelings of the mystic beyond
reality.

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 VOLUME OF SPONGY BLUE FLOATING ON A BUILDING
HISTORY / GRAZ
WHICH IS A HISTORIC CITY IN AUSTRIAN ILUSTRE.
*It is the second largest city of Austria grade.
*the castle and the old town.
*Proclaimed Human Rights City
Alien
*2003 European Capital of Art
Friendly
*Named City of Design in 2011 by UNESCO.

Peter Cook / Colin Fournier

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In content as well as from an
urbanistic point of view, the new
SITE
Kunsthaus Graz acts as an interface KUNSTHAUS GRAZ
between past and future. MUSEUM

HISTORIC
HELMET

SITE AND FEATURES OF GRAZ

• House of Austria, considered a historical monument as the oldest building made of cast iron in Europe.
• The team of architects used an innovative stylistic idiom, known as blob architecture within the historical ambiance of the Graz
city. Thus, the gigantic building affectionately called the "Friendly Alien" by its creators , in form and material, stands out
consciously against the surrounding baroque roof landscape with its red clay roofing tiles. 4
• It has an organic shape with a skin made of iridescent blue acrylic panels.
URBAN CONNECTION WITH ENVIRONMENT
Pedestrian view
of the building
where seen
leaving radically
context, shape,
color, scale

The KUNSTHAUS is part of a greater community effort to revitalize the

city center, by promotion of arts and cultural events. The complex is well
coordinated to act as the bridge into the district. The public spaces
create a flow into the surrounding spaces, drawing in residents and
visitor alike.

CONTRASTING
RADICAL WITH
THE
ENVIRONMENT
OF URBAN
FABRIC.

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Architecture, design, new media, internet art, film, and photography are united under one
roof.
The Kunsthaus Graz was developed as an institution to stage international exhibitions of multidisciplinary, modern
and contemporary art from the 1960s to the present day. Its exclusive purpose is to present and procure
contemporary art production.

Schematic section
From the blue blob grow 15 "Nozzles" that function as light inlets. The
outer skin of the building can be illuminated by the BIX (Big Pixel) media
façade .

CONCEPT AND ARCHITECTURE 6

 • The building itself is the subject of exhibition.
• It has a exotic form, with remnants of animal form
like a caterpillar lying upwards, balloon or bubble.
• The volume produces an effect of weightlessness
to be suspended on the ground floor with a wall
of glass that lets see how that continues in the
interior.
• At the top of the deck, 16 jets heighten the
profile of the building.
• The outer skin that defines the shape of the
building, is mediated to change color and
Conceptual stages of design
appearance.
• In its present location, the Kunsthaus can serve as
an efficient catalyst for positive changes in
the previously disadvantaged half of the city.
• The BIX-Media façade of Kunsthaus
Graz represents a fusion of architecture and
Media Technology and is based on a concept by
the architects realities:united from Berlin,
Germany.
Developed form of building.
CONCEPT AND ARCHITECTURE 7
 CONCEPTUAL
SKETCHES FROM
SCRIBBLED FORM TO
THE DEVELOPED
FORM CONCEPT AND ARCHITECTURE 8
SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF SPACES
1ENTRY LEVEL 2SECOND LEVEL
ENTRY

SHOP PUBLIC
GALLERY

ENTRY

CAI- CAI-
CIRCU- CIRCU-
LATION LATION
CHILDREN'S
EXHIBITS

C AI- MEDIA
C AI- MEDIA
EXHIBITS
EXHIBITS

READING

SUPPORT / SUPPORT /
SERVICE CORE TRAVELING EXHIBITS SERVICE CORE
CAFE

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SPATIAL ORGANIZATION OF SPACES
3THIRD LEVEL 4FOURTH LEVEL

CAI-
CIRCU- CIRCU-
LATION LATION

EXHIBITION

SPACE SERVICE EXHIBITION SERVICE

CORE CORE
SPACE

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11
ENCLOSURE SYSTEM

• The design incorporates a triangular brace system, and hexagonal

ports which grow to self structured nozzles which act as light ports
bringing northern light into the exhibition halls.
• In addition to the skin's structural role at the exhibition spaces, the
designers created multiple uses and multiple definitions for the
Interior view "skin" beyond the traditional role as merely the enclosure system.
• The interior tensile layer forms easily to the steel frame, while the
acrylic panels are attached with a conventional pin system.
• On a 30-meter-long travelator known as the pin, visitors can penetrate
the skin of the mysteriously shimmering bubble, cut through the area
designated for children and young people and land at the level of the
first exhibition area.

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• The structure for the exhibition space is held
within the steel frame in the skin. This
allows the space to remain unobstructed by
columns, giving absolute freedom to the plan
of the exhibits.
• Below the exhibition spaces, the free
flowing public space is enclosed by a thin
curtain wall of glass, giving the space a
feeling of transparency.
• This space uses a more conventional and
brace beam system, and in fact, it is the
foundation for the free-form structure
above.

STRUCTURAL SKIN
STRUCTURAL SYSTEM
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BIX COMMUNICATIVE DISPLAY
• The Kunsthaus Graz is covered by thousands of semi-transparent acrylic glass panels that form a “BIX
Façade” (a combination of the words “Big” and “pixels”).
• Designed by Berlin design firm realities : united, this oversize urban screen features light sources
under its skin, which are computer controlled and are used for massive displays (approximately 20 x
4meters) communicating with its environment.
• While the glazed outer skin takes an important mediating role, it also generates power through
integrated photovoltaic units.

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 • The facade BIX which consists of the
installation of 925 circular 40W fluorescent
tubes. Each ring of light acts as a pixel.

• Each of the individual pixels of the matrix is a

conventional fluorescent lamp with 40W and
a diameter of 40 centimeters.

FACADE 15
• The “resolution” of the matrix is
extremely low. There are only 930
pixels (0.2% of a conventional television
screen), plus black and white. Despite
the severe constraints imposed by this
resolution, however allows a huge
share of the facility and is much
cheaper than that of a conventional
video screen.

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The BIX façade is an example for creating a performative urban space in order to gain an
“experience city”. The elements are timeless, as coarse, monochrome common fluorescent light rings
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are used.
Beneath the surface acrylic displays an
array of 930 rings of light that covers
an area of approximately 20 meters
high and 40 wide. Individually adjusting
the brightness of each lamp, with a
frequency of 18 frames per second, each
acting like a pixel which serves as an
instrument for artistic production.

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The media façade serves as "low
tech" matrix for productions of
media artists who engage themselves
with work in the public.
They allow to research toward a
better understanding of the
combination of (static) architecture
and dynamically changeable surfaces
and structures.
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FACADE 20
The nozzle which projects upwards are used as skylights
that are also covered in plexi glass foam.

THE NOZZLE 21
The building aims to innovate in three
areas:
(1) creative and provocative
engagement with cultural and
urban contexts;
(2) museum design, display techniques
and operation through a radical
proposal which uses new media,
flexibility, ephemerality and a less
‘institutional’ approach to the
organization of museum space;
(3) new materials, design and
manufacturing techniques,
including the use of a translucent
double-curved acrylic surface.

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REFERENCES
• Living Architecture, n ° 93
• The Architectural Review, March 2004
• 100 Contemporary Architects
• Web Universalmuseum Joanneum
• www.wikipedia.org
• www.plataformaarquitectura. cl
• Peter-Cook-Friendly-Alien-Solar-Energy-Kunsthaus
• http://www.museum-joanneum.at/de/kunsthaus.
• Up into the Unknown - Peter Cook, Colin Fournier and the Kunsthaus

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