new haven CONNECTICUT

suckerPUNCH: describe your project.

amy DEDONATO: The project proposes a contemporary art museum located next to Kahn’s renowned British Art Center at Yale University. Conceptually, the project is designed as a contemporary ‘wunderkammer’ - an open art warehouse that provokes curiosity and personal discovery of art objects within the building. An undulating ceiling coupled with a natural top lighting system begins to delineate space though structural densities, compressed zones, and fully enclosed spaces.

As a symbol of Yale’s contemporary addition to the museum network, a 9-story tower-like plinth connects the art warehouse with the back-of-house program. The tower core becomes a found art-object within the warehouse itself. Visitors are transported into the upper plinth for large scale, university-wide events with scenographic views of the city at large.

sP: What or who influenced the project:

aD: Sir John Soane’s House

sP: what were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?

aD: Utopia’s Ghost - Reinhold Martin and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West

sP: whose work is currently on my radar?

aD: James Stirling.