Herzog & de Meuron just celebrated the grand opening of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), alongside the commence of the Art Basel in Miami Beach. Located on a waterfront site overlooking the Biscayne Bay, near the MacArthur Causeway, the three-story museum’s low-profile seems to almost disappear into its surroundings - a pleasant contrast to the ornate and often form-based architecture that is typically found throughout the city. This lack of form, as Jacques Herzog described, is all about “permeability.”
“Miami is known for its iconic art deco district – in fact art deco was about decorated boxes with no great relationship and exchange between inside and outside,” Herzog continued. “The greatest thing, however, that makes Miami so extraordinary is its amazing climate, lush vegetation and cultural diversity. How can these assets be fully exploited and translated into architecture? That’s the way we tried to go with our design for the new art museum in Miami.”
Continue reading for a sneak peak inside the Museum...
From the exterior, the 200,000-square-foot museum appears as a series of elevated boxes puncturing through a large, veranda-like public space and camouflaged by clusters of vertical gardens. This design was intended to deepen the connection between indoor and outdoor space, while providing an extension to the neighboring Bicentennial Park.
“The building’s environmental circumstances, the hot climate, the heavy storms, have informed the architectural concept in the very first place,” says Christine Binswanger, partner at Herzog & de Meuron. “The use of concrete and the large canopy are part of a strategy to keep the heat out. Nevertheless, the building appears as a rather fragile structure, and perhaps that is also the beauty of it.”
Inside, the museum’s stripped down interiors places all the focus on the art. Expansive bay views and ample amounts of natural light, along with simple details in concrete and wood, makes for an enjoyable and timeless space.
Reference: Herzog & de Meuron, PAMM, Iwan Baan
