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CITé Du Corps Humain

June 4, 2014

Much like the evolution of a species, programming for the new Cité du Corps Humain (Museum of the Human Body) in Montpellier, France, developed from a very raw concept into a highly sophisticated and stunningly beautiful design—articulated through the language of rendering.

Copenhagen- and New York-based BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) was selected as the winner of an international competition for its conceptual design of the upcoming museum, which consists of a series of seemingly singular pavilions that weave together to form a unified institution—like individual fingers united together in a mutual grip that harmoniously blend architecture with nature. This complex form emerged from a very basic program that identified 8 major functions that were initially expressed in a rigid, linear format and later emerged into fluid, organic shapes that form the spine of the nearly 8,400-square-foot project.

The rendering process helped the design team articulate an architectural language that deals in paradoxes: a confluence of the park and the city—nature and architecture fusing together. Rather than a single perimeter delineating an interior and an exterior, the façade is conceived as a sinuous membrane meandering across the site in a seamless continuum between the city and the park. 

The museum’s green roof is sketched as a dynamic landscape of botanical and mineral surfaces that allow the park’s visitors to explore and express their bodies in various ways, from contemplation to performance, from relaxing to exercising, and from the soothing to the challenging. 

To protect from thermal exposure and glare from the abundant Montpellier sunlight, the design team utilized modeling software to arrive at appropriate solutions: wrapping the entire envelope in a skin tailored to the conditions of the local climate, and a louver system that varies constantly to achieve the optimal shading effect. Like a functional ornament adapted to its native climate, the facades of Cité du Corps Humain resemble the patterns you find in a human fingerprint—both unique and universal in nature.

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