Alex Elmore16.March.2012

Hall of Gravity

“...a modern day pantheon for the didactic connection between the public and the private..”

Alex Elmore16.March.2012

How can architecture create a location to harbor the reunification of thinking and feeling in the physical?

Beginning with ancient Greek philosophers, man has been in pursuit of understanding the universe. The earliest beliefs were models where everything was unified. Experience and existence all revolved around the knowledge of various Deities. Through the centuries man gradually began questioning these beliefs and was skeptical of the workings of the universe. In the Middle Ages there was a schism where religion and science were separated and people had to decide into which camp they fell. With the progress that has been made in past hundred years man believes they are closer than ever to finding a single unified theory that explains the universe. Stephen Hawking, the leading Physicist of this generation, argues that although we are getting closer this theorem it is simply a bunch of numbers, it doesn’t explain what gave fire to those numbers. There is then the potential for a place that can become the setting for scientists and theorists now and in the future can voice their ideas and teach the public about their research and findings. Past precedents have been set but can this modern day pantheon become the didactic connection between scientists and the people with Stephen Hawking’s stance setting up the chance for reunification between thinking and feeling, which hasn’t been able to happen for centuries. The site for this potential reunification is located in Princeton, New Jersey on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study, which is a fellowship for scholars to pursue their field of study. They are considered one of the leading research centers in the world and their proximity to Princeton University creates an ideal situation that can be a culmination of thinking. The Pantheon in Rome and Exeter Library by Louis Kahn are two precedents chosen for their focus on the use of light and material and their ability to transcend time and place.

Alex Elmore16.March.2012

The site is located in Princeton, New Jersey at The Institute for Advanced Study, which is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The IAS was founded in 1930 by two philanthropists with its mission being to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities – the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Although it sits less than two miles it holds no direct connection to Princeton Univ. The IAS has four departments including History, Mathematics, and Natural and Social sciences. Since it’s founding, the IAS has been home to 27 Nobel Laureates and 38 Fields Medalists. However, it is most well known for having past faculty such as J.R. Oppenheimer, Erwin Panofsky, Kurt Gödel, and the genius Albert Einstein. The IAS is funded by endowments, grants and gifts. The research done there is never contracted or directed; it is left to each individual researcher to pursue his, or her, own goals. Most recently the School of Natural Sciences has greatly advanced physics, including string theory and astrophysics providing a good basis for commemorating the history and the future of physics with the potential of finding a single unified theory.

Institute

Residential

Alex Elmore16.March.2012

Hall of Gravity

Program: Lobby 1500 sqft. Room of the Voice 3500 sqft. Restrooms 250 sqft/ea. Storage 400 sqft. Mechanical 400 sqft.