Michael Maltzan lightens the mood in Houston with his first brick project
If you are an amply endowed institution of higher education in need of a striking new building for a particular function or department, there are plenty of architects who are up to the task. But if it’s that elusive bridging of disparate fields, seeding collaboration and fostering connection you’re after? Call on Michael Maltzan. Rice University did just that a few years ago, and now its leafy campus in Houston, Texas is home to the Maltzan-designed Moody Center for the Arts: a dynamic container for creation, experimentation, and presentation.
‘We’re a different kind of a space,’ says Alison Weaver, executive director of the Moody (named for the Texas-based foundation that provided most of its $30 million cost), which opened to the public last week. ‘We’re not a typical museum. We’re not a typical campus building or classroom building. We’re really trying to do something new here – something innovative and somewhat radical in its approach.’
Encompassing exhibition spaces, classrooms, a 150-seat black box theatre, a maker lab (wood shop, metal shop, paint booth, rapid prototyping wizardry), and a café, the 52,465 sq ft Moody Center is remarkable in its range, but Maltzan’s design doesn’t merely corral multiple programs under one skylight-punctuated roof. Instead, it seizes upon the elasticity of architecture to integrate adjacent and simultaneous activities, connecting them to one another, the Rice campus, and the world beyond its tree-lined quads.
‘One of the primary tools that we’ve used in the architecture is real transparency and openness,’ says Los Angeles-based Maltzan, pointing to the two-storey building’s expansive sight lines, abundant floor-to-ceiling windows, and multiple entrances bracketed by ‘starburst’ columns positioned to align with existing pathways around the campus. ‘That transparency from outside to in and also from inside to outside makes this building a true beehive of activity – almost a microcosm, like a small village or city.’
Invigorated rather than intimidated by complexity, Maltzan is a master collapser – of discrete territories and disciplines, of building and landscape, of architecture and urban design. The Moody reveals Maltzan’s equally formidable skills as a choreographer. To pass through the building is to encounter a myriad of spaces and scales ranging from intimate (an office, an audio-visual editing suite) to communal (a soaring double-height central studio crowned by a graphic constellation of LED lighting), all interwoven by strategically placed apertures, overlooks, and fissures that create opportunities for chance encounters and discovery.
With a dusky exterior that contrasts with its luminous white insides (purists will pine for monochromatic furnishings, but students seem to be enjoying the plush, blobby neon seating that colonises most interstitial areas), the Moody is Maltzan’s first brick building – a project requirement for material continuity across campus. He chose Manganese Ironspot brick for its chameleon-like qualities.
Depending upon the weather and time of the day, the dark exterior can take on a blueish glow, a silvery gleam, or a deep purple haze. ‘It changes your perception of traditional brick, and the way it’s been made – its thinness and lightness, as opposed to heavy, massive brick – relates to the variability of life around it,’ explains Maltzan. ‘I think that idea, of a building that is not heavy and not weighted down, but that is light and variable and dynamic, is for me the main metaphor of what is meant to happen at the Moody Center.’
The ambitious opening programming includes a workshop developed by Olafur Eliasson and a mesmerising extraterrestrial video installation by Diana Thater, as well as a residency by visiting artist Mona Hatoum. The Moody’s main gallery space debuts with an exhibition of 25 photographs by Thomas Struth, including a massive 2007 image of an oil rig at the DSME shipyard on South Korea’s Geoje Island. Restrained by a web of tethers that slice the composition into extruded triangles, the semi-submersible drilling rig comes alive.
‘Before I saw this, I never thought that I would want to photograph an oil rig,’ admitted Struth, who was on hand for the opening festivities. ‘But in this situation it was like Gulliver — the giant in chains — and you somehow get a much better understanding of what kind of energy is embedded in this structure.’ The scene, with its pulsing readiness and celebration of complexity, feels right at home in the Moody. ‘“Institution” doesn’t seem to be the right word for it,’ notes Struth, glancing around the sky-lit, double-height gallery. ‘It’s a centre – a centre of crossings.’
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Moody Center for the Arts website and the Michael Maltzan Architecture website
ADDRESS
Moody Center for the Arts
Rice University
6100 Main Street
Houston, TX 77005
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Alcova 2024 offers up contemporary independent design in historical domestic backdrops
Alcova 2024 moved to Varedo to take over the spaces of Villa Bagatti Valsecchi and Villa Borsani (on view until 21 April)
By Sujata Burman Published
-
Ama Bar, in Vancouver, is sexy and a little disorienting
Ama Bar features ‘Blade Runner 2049’-inspired interiors by &Daughters
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
Kembra Pfahler revisits ‘The Manual of Action’ for CIRCA
Artist Kembra Pfahler will lead a series of classes in person and online, with a short film streamed from Piccadilly Circus in London, as well as in Berlin, Milan and Seoul, over three months until 30 June 2024
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
A low-energy farmhouse provides a rural escape in North Carolina
This low-energy farmhouse is a net zero architectural re-set for a Californian client, an East Coast relocation for a more engaged and low-key lifestyle
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
A Petra Island house rises from Frank Lloyd Wright's original drawings
Based on Frank Lloyd Wright drawings, the cantilevering Petra Island Massaro House, located in New York’s Hudson Valley, is now open to visitors
By Craig Kellogg Published
-
An Upper West Side apartment by General Assembly nods to its history
An Upper West Side apartment in New York, born out of the reimagining of two neighbouring units, is refreshed by General Assembly for a young family
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
New York's Leica store echoes the brand's blend of heritage and innovation
Leica store throws open its doors in New York's Meatpacking District, courtesy of Brooklyn based Format Architecture Office
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Hudson Valley Residence is a low-lying retreat that seamlessly blends into the horizon
Designed by HGX Design, Hudson Valley Residence is a scenic home offering unobstructed views across the Catskill Mountains in Upstate New York
By Tianna Williams Published
-
Boise Passive House’s bold gestures support an environmentally friendly design
Boise Passive House by Haas Architecture combines sleek, contemporary design and environmental efficiency
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
At the Hilbert Museum of California Art’s expanded home, art and architecture converge
The Hilbert Museum of California Art expands its home, courtesy of Los Angeles architecture studio Johnston Marklee
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Pearlman Cabin by John Lautner is an organic Californian mountain retreat
John Lautner’s midcentury Pearlman Cabin, tucked away in the Californian mountain resort of Idyllwild, is a striking example of organic architecture
By Mimi Zeiger Published