Steven Holl Architects Arts Building University of Iowa

In 2010 Steven Holl Architects won the competition to design the new Visual Arts Building of the University of Iowa. This is the second building Steven Holl has designed for the campus; the first is the adjacent building to the northwest, known as Art Building West, completed in 2006.
The new Visual Arts Building replaces a previous building, constructed in 1936 and damaged in the floods of June 2008; the university recently announced completion of the construction of the frame, and the building is now being completed, due to be ready by May 2016.

Steven Holl’s new building has a number of important features, such as interconnection among the arts thanks to the structure’s vertical porosity. Broad vertical connections and brightly lit courtyards crossing the entire volume link the four horizontal levels on which the building’s functions are distributed, promoting natural ventilation and use of daylight in the building and creating informal spaces for meetings and get-togethers, referred to as "social condensers".
The new Visual Arts Building also picks up on the original campus layout, forming a new open space for the University along with the adjacent Art Building West: a grassy lawn for the arts.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Steven Holl Architects

http://www.stevenholl.com/

---

GALLERY