Cranbrook Institute of Science

Steven Holl

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA

1998

Steven Holl Architects consists of 35 architects and urban designers working globally from two offices in New York and Beijing. The firm recognizes the importance of sustainable building and imaginative design. “We see a sustainable approach to design and construction as an obligation to the future of the built environment and are committed to this vision in each project.” (15) Steven Holl won the daylight award for architecture in 2016, for continuous exploration into light and spaces over more than three decades. His designs encourage both architect sand students to engage with design informed by daylight and not to conform to use of light that lacks creativity and imagination. This building having been built in 1998 makes it one of Holl’s earlier works, however his approach and attitudes towards light are still seen throughout the spaces.

Cranbrook was founded in 1904 and is today recognized as one of the leading centres in education, science and art. Cranbrook is comprised of Art academy and art museum, schools, a centre for collections and research, and an institute for science. The Cranbrook educational community hosts more than three thousand students each year of all ages and interests.(16) Bloomfield Hill’s Michigan is in north-eastern United states, near the Canadian border and near the city of Detroit.

The location and light in Bloomfield, Michigan, is not dissimilar to the daylight pattern in Ireland. They have overall more sunshine hours all year around, however the pattern from summer to winter is a similar graph, with a more gradual change from the summer and winter solstice than seen in the other two projects. The nearest weather station is Chicago which is slightly further west and south to Bloomfield Hills. (17) (Graph (17))

The project brief was to add to and renovate the existing science museum and education facility. The building is carefully thought through in terms of materials and design, the use of glass in the light laboratory being the main attraction. Acid reddened brass canopies hang above the entrance to the science centre. Light yellow limestone and tan concrete block make up the exterior walls of the new wing. (18) The exhibition space and institute are centred around an outdoor garden, where “scientific phenomena are exhibited in the open air”. Within the science garden there are multiple flow pools which show the story of water, in liquid solid and vapour forms.(19) The building loops around this courtyard creating a connection with the outdoors and having a dynamic, interactive courtyard spaces for both visitors and staff.

The renovation to the building connects the 1937 galleries, The hall of minerals and the Hall of Man. The new shape allows for multiple paths between exhibits. “It’s circuits are unique, allowing for the potential that no visit to the new science museum will be a repeat experience, rather each engagement is provocative and unpredictable.”(20) The openness of the exhibit halls creates spacious grand rooms and the walls are plastered with red stucco, which contrast the translucent glass planks that are along the stairway to the lower spaces and galleries.(18)

“A "light laboratory" forms an entrance hall which functions as a changing exhibit. A south facing wall is filled with different windows and types of glass. Different phenomena of light, such as refraction and prismatic colour, are displayed on the lobby walls as the sunlight changes.”(20) This is not only an architectural feature, but its own exhibit of the science museum, demonstrating properties of light and glass and how both can be adapted to created different effects on a surface beyond, in this case the walls of the entrance hall. By making this a double height space, it enhances the effects and creates a huge canvas for the light display. The room is left empty and the walls painted white to maximise the show and making sure nothing distracts or takes away from it. It succeeds in creating a dramatic and lively first impression when visiting the science centre. Some of the glass makes harsh bright light, with lines or shadows, some of the glass has more of a coloured tint and it more dapples, each crating its own unique show on the wall.

Lighting is a key part of the project, with Holl’s design concept of ‘phase space’ a property of strange attractors, a physics particle theory. The idea is passed into the building through the concept that you pass through the building in a loop, but you never pass through in the same way as before. (21) During the daytime, skylights provide clean unobtrusive lighting, however at night the structures become illuminated as bars of electrical light. The lighting and skylights are closely connected to the design of the building, focusing on divergence and routes of the building, just as the trajectory of the centre of the energy nexus of strange attractors. To do this, lighting is radiated through slots of light on a track system. (22)

This project is a really good example of  the windows and light being used for more than just a practical use, but made into their own feature and exhibition. It shows that when thinking about incorporating light into a project, it can be more than just functional. When originally thinking about daylight, it was easy to head down the route of pure functionality; how best to get it into a space, how to control it, shades, etc. and it’s easy to overlook how it can be used as its own feature and incorporated into the function of the building. Holl obviously carefully considered how the building was going to be used, and by whom, knowing it was a museum and mainly intended for public use, it allowed for a showstopping piece that wouldn’t just be used by the same group of people every day giving room for more freedom. Knowing the room needed less practical daylight, i.e. there wouldn’t be people consistently working day in day out in this space, gave flexibility for a more creative, original design. Yet in the gallery spaces and other rooms in the building, the lighting was also thought through when looking at the function of the spaces, with the large skylights illuminating the room.

Photogrpahs - Paul Warchol

15.     STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://www.stevenholl.com/about

16.     A Unique Educational Institution About | Cranbrook Institute of Science [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://science.cranbrook.edu/discover/about

17.     Climate and average monthly weather in Milwaukee (Wisconsin), United States of America [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 27]. Available from: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine-fahrenheit,milwaukee-wisconsin-us,United-States-of-America

18.     Cranbrook Institute of Science | SAH ARCHIPEDIA [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-OK4.8

19.     Cranbrook Institute of Sciece | Obsessive Collectors Archive [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: http://obsessivecollectors.com/cranbrook-institute-of-science

20.     CRANBROOK INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE - STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://www.stevenholl.com/projects/cranbrook-science-institute

21.     Interview: Steven Holl (Summer 1998) « Competitions [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://competitions.org/2016/05/steven-holl/

22.     L’Observatoire International - Cranbrook Institute of Science [Internet]. [cited 2020 Oct 25]. Available from: https://lobsintl.com/project/cranbrook-institute-science