driscoll villa galleries
A Container for Things at Laguna Gloria
The University of Texas at Austin / Fall 2022
Professor: Kevin Alter
Achievements: UTSOA Design Excellence Nomination
This project proposes a gallery design inspired by the excitement of discovery at the Laguna Gloria sculpture garden. Mimicking the site’s invitation to wander, the project guides visitors through a series of contrasting spaces.
The design employs a concrete waffle vault with arch proportions identical to those adjacent to the neighboring Villa Driscoll. The building’s placement establishes an enhanced streetfront for the site, framing the villa while providing a direct path into the tree-filled landscape to the north. The galleries themselves are sculpted in plan and section, articulating a sense of whimsical enclosure through the use of precast concrete blocks.
An ETFE ceiling system above intensifies the atmospheric quality within the galleries, adding lightness to the structure with inflatable arch forms that resound the rhythym of the concrete waffle.
This project recognizes that buildings, like objects, hold meaning beyond their explicit function. The galleries emerge as containers, a shelter for sculptures unsuited for life in the garden. Transitional spaces offer an atmospheric contrast to the galleries, exposing the building’s materiality while housing traditionally framed works.