Architect Farshid Moussavi's new home for the MOCA Cleveland is a slow-motion spectacular, unfolding gradually over four stories and approximately 34,000 sq ft
Photography: Dean Kaufman
The building envelope, a craggy carapace that is independent of the load-bearing floors, has six faceted sides, one of them a tall triangle of transparent glass that echoes the three-cornered building site...
... while the others are clad in panels of black stainless steel for a unique finish that is part funhouse mirror, part mood ring
With entrances on all sides, the double-height ground floor can be configured as a gallery, performance venue, or social hub
The contrast between inside and outside could have been jarring, but Moussavi proposed the bold move of lining the structural shell with colour: a midnight blue that suggests an inky, matte wink to Yves Klein ultramarine
'Artists gave us feedback about the intensity of the blue paint,' Moussavi explains. 'They said that if it was dark enough, it would recede and give this sensation of a boundless space'
