“The New National Gallery in Berlin by Mies van der Rohe is a tragic building - art is buried here, preserved in the plinth of the modern pantheon, to be resurrected in the indefinite future.”

In the neo-utilitarian future art is deemed a frivolity. Institutions are largely blind to its aesthetic value, and its display is organized for the sole purpose of educating the public of the damage done to society by self-indulgence.

Extending and amplifying select effects of the demimonde house to a larger scale, this design riffs on Hejduk’s Museum Diamond. A road cuts through the shape at grade. With the galleries facing this public promenade, it mimics an arcade or a mall. Here both art and architecture are experienced in a state of distraction.

Those visitors willing to enter the galleries are directed down into the voided out plinth, where the large collective is broken up into smaller groups as they go through the sculpture garden on the way to the elevator.

Interior partitions are curved to compete with paintings, most of which are hung from the ceiling. They are lifted from the ground because people should be able to see each other’s legs. In plan these walls play a game of tag with the column grid.

The largest figures house cinema and performance art. The roof garden is a landscape.