新伯克利艺术博物馆及太平洋电影档案馆（BAM,PFA）丨Diller Scofidio + Renfro

'Architecture of Life' exhibition marks opening of DS+R-designed new Berkeley Art Museum next week

Rendering of the new Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) which will open on January 31 with the exhibition Architecture of Life.

Commissioned to convert an abandoned printing plant into a university art museum, Diller Scofidio + Renfro took inspiration from fresh fruit. The architects left the original building intact, stretching a sleek skin around it, split open at the front. The new Berkeley Art Museum will open next week with an exhibition that historically contextualizes Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design process, and provides a formidable storehouse of ideas for future architecture.

Recent photo of the almost completed structure on January 21. (Image via @BAMPFA on Twitter.)

The form of the Osher Theater reinterprets 1930’s Streamline Moderne style of the Press Building in a contemporary language of ruled surfaces and precision-formed stainless steel. The sleek outer body is lined by a striated interior; the warm-colored sinews wrap the inside of the silvery shell. At the Addison Street end, the new structure hovers above an open excavation, exposing the library and works on paper study center to the public. The other end of the new form is counterbalanced by a café dramatically cantilevered over Center Street.