EdBecker's Portfolio » EdB: Subterranean Museum

"The Subterranean Museum is a submerged space intended to provide a place for comtemplation, conversation, and meditation. The use of the outdoor but submerged Waterfall Park will allow spectators the luxury of listening to calm and relaxing sounds while enjoying the views of the juxtaposed, cantilevering rocks and stones. Accompanying the Waterfall Park is a Sculpture Garden with shallow reflecting pools covering the entire surface area. On the opposite side of the museum is a submerged plaza filled with garden beds, zen gardens, and walkways for navigation and conversation.I designed this space with the intent of having trees and shubbery to attract birds, causing its spectators to enjoy their melodic sounds. The open voids of the below-grade Waterfall Park and The Plaza allows pedestrians passing by to look down into them and become intrigued by the beauty of the spaces. The museum is an underground space that allows natural light to penetrate into it via curtain walls and glass skylights on the roof and surfaces of the sidewalk. There are elevators for handicapped pedestrians to access the underground spaces from surface level. Other pedestrians can access the underground spaces via staircase on either end of the long corridor. The Subterranean Museum does not deduct square footage. It increases it by transforming the roof of the structure into a plaza where navigators can walk over its roof or relax on its roof-top benches. Garden beds will always accompany the surface of the roof."