Two key design choices by Steven Holl make sure the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, is flooded with natural light. Concave roof openings let the light in from above and seven porous gardens, cut out of the volume, let the light into traffic corridors.
The curved dancing roof slices open strips of glazing to let the light into the top level galleries. The undersides of the curved ceilings function as light reflectors that distribute the light across each gallery.
The organic shape refers to the lush vegetation and water that characterizes the new campus expansion. The two levels 237,000-sf Kinder Building is part of a master plan that knits together a 1924 historic church, a Mies van der Rohe building, and an Isamu Noguchi sculpture garden.
Seven gardens slice open the glazed volume and mark points of entry. The largest garden court indicates the main entry. From the adjoining entrance lobby visitors can see gardens and lush local vegetation in four directions. The gardens aim to open up the building and create a porous ground floor.
The galleries are organized around a central atrium. The visitor route is a continuous flow through six exhibition rooms punctuated by the views into the seven gardens. The atrium and the gardens orient the visitors throughout their route through the art spaces.
The facade is clad with glass tubes that have a soft alabaster texture. The 30-inch tubes open at the top and the bottom to form a ‘cold jacket’ which reduces solar gain through a chimney effect of the air circulation by 70 percent.
At night the translucent facade glows reflect in the water gardens and invite people to enter the porous museum.
