Charles Schulz was born in Minnesota from a middle class family. He was always fond of the warm, homey feeling. Because the designers wanted to honor this aesthetic, they actually built the museum to look more like a house than anything else. That started with its small scale. The museum has only two stories and two interchangeable exhibits, leaving it very intimate and personal, perfect for displaying such a personal art as comics. Most of the lighting comes from skylights and windows, bringing the warmth of natural light into a museum experience. The atrium and great hall are tiled with slate, and the exhibit floors are herring-bone hardwood, both mediums native too and reflecting Schulz’s roots in Minnesota. The walls are also regularly painted to bring color and life to walls filled with black and white cartoon strips. It even has a backyard, technically called the courtyard, filled not only with sculptural works but plenty of grass to play on.
Existing hand in hand with the domestic feel of the museum is its homage to the art of cartooning itself. The exterior of the building looks modern with its smooth planes, but the white panels refer more to comic paper than any Modernist style. The colors that are on the outside; yellow and teal, represent the CMYK color combination found in newspaper printing.
Not every element is noted by every visitor, but from my experience as a volunteer, they all feel the same overwhelming sense of comfort. The design of the museum explains Mr. Schulz’s personality better than innumerable words could, and envelops you much more thoroughly. It shows just how much design can implicitly communicate, how architectural choices can speak so loudly.
The Charles M. Schulz Museum.
http://www.schulzmuseum.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment