Dubbed “the friendly alien” by the locals, the Kunsthaus Graz has been hovering over the city of Graz, Austria since 2003. While making an eye-catching home for a notable collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, the facade itself is a visual wonder, using embedded lights to communicate its otherworldly benevolence to the humans below.
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It’s blobby, bio-morphic shape has the appearance of an extra-dimensional whale floating just above the treeline in Graz near the river Mur. It’s the work of Colin Fournier, a partner with the TETRA architecture firm and Peter Cook. The facade is comprised of more than 1,300 individually-shaped plexiglass panels. The blue skin rises up toward a series of skylight “nozzles.”
The facade is supported by BIX, a media installation by the design firm realities:united. The design firm installed 930 circular florescent light tubes underneath the transparent skin. The resolution for the display is relatively low since each bulb represents one pixel. But with a frequency of 18 frames a second, the facade is able to show messages, images and animations.
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Wow ! When will it take off.