NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART - CASCADE CAFE
1: EXISTING SPACE
2: ETCHING
The Large Tree and The Cascade by Herman van Swanevelt is in the permanent collection at the National Gallery of Art. The idea with this scheme is to create a wall paper that wraps the columns and some of the larger swaths of wall with macro versions of this etching. This etching was selected because of the subject matter relating to the cascade/waterfall across from the main entry. The etching strokes show movement which hopefully also connect these food service spaces with the waterfall across the hall.
This etching is one of many in the collection with this subject matter and variations could be explored. But the concept is to essentially extract wall coverings and a material pallete from a piece of art in the collection and to zoom in on a work of art to extract motion and pattern.
3: GALLERY WALL
In this option, A GALLERY WALL of paintings and drawings becomes a wallpaper that again covers the columns and the large swaths of blank walls. These are more colorful selections, all containing a waterfall/cascade from the National Gallery of Art collection. In this case, the white oak from the previous scheme goes to a darker, cherry tone to compliment the artwork better. The remaining finishes and colors are derived from the tones found again and again in the artwork.
4: INTERACTIVE
In this option, we are using an interactive, video wall at the entry. This wall can play anything from flowing water in dialogue with the reall waterfall to rotating menus and activations. We can have live-footage of food being made and encourage guests to come into the space. The colors of undercounters, tiles, and other finishes are inspired by the blues, greens, and grays of the cascading water.
with people below
previous studies
interactive - old
option 4
A CASCADE IN THE MOUNTAINS
OPTION 4 suggests to take the color pallete directly from “A Cascade in the Mountains” by Henri-Joseph Harpignies. I selected this painting for the color pallete and of course the context/relation to the Cascade Café but the source art could be anything. This is just an example of how the space might feel if it was particularly inspired by this piece of art.
WHITE SPACE
Aside from the material pallete for undercounter treatments, paint, etc there needs to be a solution for the white walls and columns within the space. In this case, I’m using a generative code to extract colors from the original artwork to create wallpapers with variable densities based on the content of the original work.
OPTION 3: PHOTO GALLERY
In this option, PHOTO GALLERY, the concept is the same as above but rather than sampling paintings, drawings, and etchings, photos are used. There are also experiments here in abstracting the base imagery to create less legible, and more non-pictoral wall coverings.
option 1
CASCADES
OPTION 1 uses a desaturated color pallete, using black, white, and tan tile/vinly. The walls are covered in a wallpaper/vinyl application using art from the National Gallery that features ‘Cascades’. The images here are pulled from the NGA website and are just meant to be a brief sampling of what is possible here. The guest would be immersed in artwork during their dining experience at the Cascade Cafe.
option 2
OPTION 3
FLOWING WATER
OPTION 3 is trying to capture some of the beauty and tranquility of the neighboring cascade/waterfall across from the entrance. The blue, green, and gray tones would evoke flowing water and would work with the blue toneof the existing flooring. The entrance could be a projection of water falling and the white space of the walls on the inside could be static.