Steven Holl - The Body in Space

Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Finland

Today, I watched a documentary on a famous American architect named Steven Holl. The Body in Space is about some of the many buildings that he has designed, and his thought process behind what and why his reasons are of designing each concept. When I looked through some images online on his work, the first thing that came to mind was, these don't look real. The reason i though this was because its like looking into the future with sharp clean lines and gravity defying shapes and angles. Balance, shape, light and movement all come to mind when looking at his works. Instantly you can see his buildings are inspired by the 21st century, and how the modern and futuristic way his buildings show light and space create a new style on which buildings and architecture are still being designed like today.
The first building to be shown on the documentary, was the development and creation of Kiasma, contemporary art museum located in Finland. I found it interesting in the way Steven described the experience of walking through the museum like "the body moving through a series of prospectives". This to me said that he wanted people to be able to see as much as possible from different angles, yet still see something new within moving through. One thing that captured my eyes was the light shining down into the building. This to me opens up a space further and as you can see in the image above, The main entrance is slightly narrow, however bringing light from the top of the building makes it seem extremely bigger and more interesting to look at. This is why I think space and light come under similar territories in architecture as they can both help each-other balance out.

When Steven Holl was creating this amazing building, there was much controversy around it. This is because it was going to effect the Carl Mannerheim Equestrian Statue. Around 20,000 locals then signed a petition against Kiasma as with great significance to Finnish people, moving the statue would of been disrespectful. Furthermore, Steven then created a space in the building where you could see it from eye-level as people had to look up to see it before. This was a great chance I feel for Steven to show how he could develop a design into something more positive.