The document is a project statement for a proposed Natural History Museum that aims to promote discovery through an architecture of transparency, program hybridity, and context integration. The museum design combines typically separate program elements like archives and galleries. It also makes the fossil excavation and cleaning process transparent to visitors. The building envelope and circulation utilize transparent materials to allow views of indoor programs. On site, existing landscape will drape over the new structure to create habitable green space.

1. Tanya Aksamentova
ARC498 Fall 2015
Project Statement
Architecture as Medium for Human Understanding
As a social species, we define ourselves in the world we live. Agriculturally gridded
landscapes, bustling high-rise cities and networks of roadways—our footprint on our home planet
is measured by our need to connect with ourselves, each other and the world around us.
1
The
practice of architecture should facilitate that discovery and act as a medium for human interaction
with the earth.
The LB Museum of Natural History aims to promote that fundamental need for discovery
through an architecture of transparency, program hybridity and context integration.
When we hybridize our surroundings, we create new adaptations of ideas, tastes and
customs. This crossbreeding allows us to continuously reshape our understanding and challenge
existing paradigms. The architectural language of the LB museum adopts this concept of hybridity
as a means to cohabit typically separated program elements. By combining spaces such as the
archive, gallery and laboratory instead of designing to their root identity, the museum functions as
a multiplicity of programs.
To further discovery, the museum manifests an architecture of transparency in its
circulation, building envelope and process. With the museum actively unearthing new fossils, the
process of “excavation to exhibit” is made transparent to the public. Instead of viewing the
cleaned fossil indoors, the guest trace this process with exterior installations that guide the visitor
through in the shoes of a scientist. The interior circulation follows the same principle, with
transparent layers of program stacked in procession. The building envelope also utilizes a set of
transparent materials that allow unticketed guests to gain some understanding of the program
indoors.
1
Totterdell, Peter, David Holman, and Amy Hukin. "Social Networkers: Measuring and
Examining Individual Differences in Propensity to Connect with Others." Social Networks 30.4
(2008): 283-96. Web.

2. On site, the museum also embodies the concept of hybridity by creating a juxtaposition of
manmade and natural materials. While the structure adds a fabricated footprint on site, the
existing landscape drapes over the building to create habitable green space above.

3. Work Cited
1. Abel, Chris, and Norman Foster. Architecture and identity. Routledge, 2012.
2. Alexander, Christopher, S. Ishikawa, and M. Silverstein. "Pattern languages." Center for
Environmental Structure 2 (1977).
3. Anderson, Maxwell. Metrics of Success in Art Museums. The Getty Leadership Institute. 2004.
4. Arendt, Hannah. The human condition. University of Chicago Press, 2013.
5. Bjarke Ingels, Yes is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution (exhibition catalogue),
Copenhagen, 2009
6. Blake, Peter. Form follows fiasco: Why modern architecture hasn't worked. Ed. Maurizio
Giachetti. Alinea, 1983.
7. Casey, Edward S. Getting back into place: Toward a renewed understanding of the place-world.
Indiana University Press, 1993.
8. Dripps, R. D. The First House: Myth, Paradigm, and the Task of Architecture. Cambridge,
Mass;London;: MIT Press, 1997.
9. Gehl, Jan, 1936. Cities for People. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2010.
10. Halbwachs, Maurice, and Lewis A. Coser. On collective memory. University of Chicago Press,
1992.
11. Hall, Edward Twitchell. Beyond culture. Anchor, 1989.
12. Harries, Karsten. The ethical function of architecture. Mit Press, 1998.
13. Heidegger, Martin. "Building dwelling thinking." Poetry, language, thought 154 (1971).
14. Kent, Fred. "Toward an Architecture of Place: Moving Beyond Iconic to Extraordinary - Project for
Public Spaces." Project for Public Spaces. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
15. King, Anthony D. "Spaces of Global Cultures: Architecture, Urbanism." Identity(2004): 151-67.
16. Norberg-Schulz, Christian. Genius loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture. Rizzoli, 1980.
17. Totterdell, Peter, David Holman, and Amy Hukin. "Social Networkers: Measuring and Examining
Individual Differences in Propensity to Connect with Others." Social Networks 30.4 (2008): 283-
96.

10. 1
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ARC498_2015F_A2.1_AKSAMENTOVA
SITE | FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
The majority of improvements and new
developments that occur in this region
of LA are focused on the revitalization of
small businesses and commercial center
for young professionals. While residential
does play a role, it is the commercial
opportunities that will begin to define the
language of Wilshire Ave alongside tall
office buildings.
+
OUTLOOK
A new, redesigned museum will begin to
attract more foot traffic to Hancock park,
connecting to Wilshire BLVD,
LACMA
The future 218 unit apartment building will
increase residential activity within the down-
town district of LA, a vegetation-lacking area.
VALENCIA APARTMENTS
WILSHIRE GRAND REMODEL
BUS RAPID TRANSIT
GOOD SAMARITAN HOSPITAL
A 36 story, mixed use structure will increase
residential and office use just west of down-
town LA. While the structure does have
restaurant and retail space, there is no
surviving area for green space.
The Bus Rapid Transit project will create a
new route along Wilshire BLVD and have a
major stop just south of the site. This will
create more foot traffic.
A couple blocks away, the Good Samaritan
Hospital will infuse some different program-
matic elements to downtown LA.
This region of LA and its neighboring downtown
district is said to expect some 90-odd projects
to begin in 2016. Let’s take a look at these new
developments and their impact on the site:
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28. AERIAL RENDEIRING
01SITE PLAN
SCALE : 1’=40’-0”
VR RENDERINGS
1. Scan the desired qrcode with your mobile device.
(You need to have the qr scanner installed.)
2. Once on the VR rendering, make certain you are
viewing in dual screen.
3. Place your mobile device centrally in the headset.
4. Don’t bump into things.
auditorium entry+lab gallery cafe exterior

29. 02NORTH ELEVATION
SCALE : N.T.S.
03WEST ELEVATION
SCALE : N.T.S.
01EAST ELEVATION
SCALE : N.T.S.
04SOUTH ELEVATION
SCALE : N.T.S.
RENDERING OF THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LAB.
RENDERING OF THE LOBBY.
RENDERING OF THE AUDITORIUM.
RENDERING OF THE NORTH EAST CORNER.

30. 01FLOOR PLAN
SCALE : N.T.S.
02ASSEMBLY DETAIL
SCALE : N.T.S.
03ASSEMBLY CONCEPT
SCALE : N.T.S.
04STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS
SCALE : N.T.S.
05SECTION C
SCALE : N.T.S.
06SECTION B
SCALE : N.T.S.
07SECTION A
SCALE : N.T.S.

31. 01EGRESS DIAGRAM
SCALE : 1/32” =1’-0” 01UNIVERSAL DESIGN DIAGRAM
SCALE : 1/32” =1’-0”
03ACTIVE HVAC DIAGRAM
SCALE : 1/32” =1’-0”
04PASSIVE HVAC DIAGRAM
SCALE : N.T.S.
05ROOF PLAN
SCALE : 1/64” =1’-0” 06REFLECTED CEILING PLAN
SCALE : 1/64” =1’-0”
07PASSIVE + ACTIVE LIGHTING
SCALE : N.T.S.