Museum of Plant Specimens

This project, done in collaboration with Spencer Collom for a class in Daylighting given by Susan Ubbelohde at UC Berkeley, presents a proposal for a gallery housing a large collection of dried plant specimens and a neighboring reading room. The project, which includes a greenhouse and walled garden, aims to put these fragile (and light-sensitive) objects into direct conversation with living plants which require several orders of magnitude more light to survive. The ceiling of the main gallery space has a multilayer assembly with (from top to bottom or exterior to interior) a clear glass skylight, two layers of foliate tracery shading devices, and a diffusing glass or plastic laylight system. This system mimics the experience of being in the dappled light under a forest canopy, and raises occupant awareness of changing sky conditions by appearing vastly different under clear or overcast skies. The project was developed through a series of discrete assignments and small study models and culminated in a final physical daylightinge model, which was also used for simulation both outside (using a pocket heliodon for clear skies) and UC Berkeley's artificial sky (for overcast skies).

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(Elective Project, M. Arch, U.C. Berkeley - SPRING 2017, Susan Ubbelohde, instructor; Spencer Collom, collaborator)