This design proposal attempts to create space that evokes reflection about perceiving surrounding through senses. The project’s title refers to an unconventional approach to the senses and the way we use them.
“THINK OUT OF THE BOX” sensory museum is located in Poznań - one of the biggest cities in Poland. The plot that has been designated for this project is very special due to surrounding dense, historic urban development. There are many important buildings, symbolic sculptures, crystallizing and dominant urban elements nearby. Unfortunately, there are no places in this area for activities and spending time with friends. Therefore, it is an ideal spot for the sensory museum foundation.
The shape of the building is not accidental. The heart of the form is a reference to historic tenement house - direct neighbour of the designing plot, while the simple polycarbonate facade resembles the new building of the Raczyński’s Library.
The building consists of several functional parts. The open part of the atrium is filled with boxes constituting the exhibition of the museum, the gastronomic and café part, the workshop part and the sanitary, office and economic facilities.
People are used to observing interiors from the inside, we don’t know how our room or kitchen does look from the outside - interior in many cases is the only field of perception. Designed atrium is a “negative space” to this phenomenon. Sensory boxes, whose value is hidden inside, can be observed from almost any angle. It can cause unusual sensations. Space is perceived here inside out.
Every box is intended for a limited number of people. In each of them presented, you can feel various feelings related to the respective senses. They can connect, exclude or complement.
You decide what sense you want to focus on and feel the most.
In the presented boxes, you can: hear the sounds of the city or enter a completely soundproof room. You may notice light falling inside a perforated box, or you may enter one where the light is not reflected at all. You can see a cube with a glass ceiling and one with water flowing on the walls. You can also feel like a child jumping into a pool full of soft balls, climbing walls or standing on a balance beam. There are also references to the nature. Feel like in a jungle, squeezing through the tropical plants and looking for a constellation of stars in a galactic box.
The lecture halls can accommodate over 100 people. The necessary office and storage facilities are proposed. The building is adapted for the use of people with disabilities through the use of passenger lifts and bathrooms of an appropriate size. There is a single-storey underground car park, accessed by a car lift located at the end of the building. The building has two fire-rated staircases, which protects users and employees in case of a fire.
The museum was designed in accordance with the adopted assumptions, and the design process was rich in valuable reflections on the space absorption, and thus architecture, using such a powerful tool as the senses.