Sure, it looks like a bunch of Jenga blocks with no rhyme or reason. But it's a contemporary art museum. What do you expect? It's supposed to be jarring. It would be more inappropriate if housed in a restored or neotraditional building. The people who patronize such museums aren't tried-and-true conservative types anyway.
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I think you have struck upon a very important point here, that of the architect and his/her relationship with the client and brief. When trying to interpret, criticise or understand any piece of modern architecture never underestimate the importance of the client architect relationship. Whenever i get a brief to design a theater, art gallery, research laboratory or any building, i try to look for case studies of such buildings around the world.
Then i will pay specific attention to how the architect dealt with the individual or organisation which was his/her client. Sometimes the client can change from one end of a project to an other - this is often the reason for poor design decisions etc, not the architect. Some architects like to show the client a number of ideas, and allow the client to pick one - giving the client themselves some feeling having picked out the one, of 'ownership' and participation in the design process. It works on the scale of house design, where the home occupier thats a certain deserved level of credit for what they have obtained as a built end result.
Steven Holl is very good at doing this - read about his church of the seven sacriments to understand how he managed to keep his seven towers even thought the budget was being cut by the client. Coop Himmelblau often treat there architecture for roof tops in central Vienna as 'Works of Art' and therefore not subject to normal planning guidelines - projects like their rooftop remodelling, which is about as far as an architect can go 'against the planning establishment'.
I am sure some of you here have hung around with art lovers, exhibition go-ers, cultural buffs etc. Just like Golf courses are not always too caring about ecology, nature and habitats - neither are art lovers ever too caring about urbanity.
The brief for a contemporary Art Museum or Gallery is very specific, that kind of client has very, very unique ideas and needs. Always ask yourself this question with buildings, what were the Arts community in Cincinnati using before they got their new Hadid-designed gallery?
Well, my guess is, the Art community probably rented some really old grotty, ugly, dis-used, abandoned bunker type managed to find somewhere around Cincinnati. Someplace that had hardly no windows, just huge big interior gallery spaces to hang, suspend, arrange, install, build and view/experience "ART" with capital letters. When art lovers and artists themselves go to view and to criticise Art in an exhibition, they never worry about the building and its contribution to urban living in downtown Cincinnati.
They just want a big enough, airy, neutral white wall painted environment, that allows you to focus intensely on what the art is saying. In so doing, the whole world outside is 'cut out', suspended temporarily. After visiting the exhibition, you will probably get out of there quickly and look for a trendy cafe or pub in the recreational area of Cincinnati to meet up with other artists, writers and intellectual to discuss the exhibition and the art.
I have extracted a couple of statements from the article, which describe the process or relationship developed between the architect, Hadid and the client Charles Desmarais.
The opening exhibition had far too much second-division conceptual stuff in it, but the experience of wandering from space to space was delightful.
"We chose her because she really understood contemporary art," says the CAC director, Charles Desmarais. "And we needed someone who could do a building that would symbolize the key values of the Contemporary Arts Center, would tie our programmes to the city in a much more direct way than before."
It is certainly a shop window for art.
Given that we're on a very tight urban corner, I'm thrilled at the array of spaces that we've got."
This is what generated the variety of spaces, while Desmarais' desire to engage with the community generated the foyer spaces. "I wanted to bring the outside in, with the idea of an urban carpet," says Hadid. "In the galleries, we didn't know what they would have there. So the idea was to make as many different 'found spaces' as possible.
Remember, a sucessful building is normally best studied from a point of view of architect AND the client. One of the nicest Scientific Research Laboratories ever built, is in California - The Salk Institute, for the client Salk who helped the Architect Louis Kahn to push himself. Kahn always stressed greatly the relationship between architect and client.
Once Kahn designed a dormitory for young school girls. Kahn realised there was something slightly unnatural about girls living away from home, so he decided to 'remind' them of the presence of a male figure, their father he would insert a fireplace into the social areas of the dormitory building. Reckoning the fireplace would remind them of fathers sitting beside the fireplace smoking a pipe.
Even look at Gehry designing the Music Project for Paul Allen or one of those big MicroSoft guns. Gehry now has his own company specifically dedicated toward developing computer technology for designing his architecture - so the match of client who wanted a building to say it's age - information technology and the architect Gehry was a good one i am sure. Jim Glymph is the genius at Gehry's practice who allows Gehry to build what he does and still remain in business as an architect. Prior to computers Gehry used to farm out all his working drawings, and lose most of his employees bonuses etc, to cost overruns, poor finishing, time overruns, you name it.
But my main problem with it is at the street level where the connection to the ground seems to be too spindly co,pared to the massing of the upper floors.
I am delighted someone mentioned that aspect to the design. That is what the journalist spoke about when he said, "The building wants to take over the two adjoining streets and some of the neighbouring buildings".
If you like the building design would lend itself better if placed upon a nice older European Square, with plenty of space to stand back from the building. One of those nice pedestrian squares like in Rome with people sitting in cafes, and discussing high brow topics like art and literature. What the 'arty' community in America would love, is someplace like a Hadid Gallery to show off how 'contemporary, hip and avant-garde' they are trying to be.
