flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

The Rubin Museum of Art’s Mandala Lab set to open

Museums

The Rubin Museum of Art’s Mandala Lab set to open

The new space occupies the museum’s third floor.


By David Malone, Managing Editor | August 17, 2021
Mandala Lab breathing sculpture

Renderings courtesy PRO

The Mandala Lab, the Rubin Museum of Art’s new interactive space for social, emotional, and ethical learning, is set to open to the public on Sept. 24.

The lab is located on the remodeled third floor and was designed by Peterson Rich Office (PRO). The Mandala Lab invites visitors to participate in five experiences. These experiences feature videos accompanied by scents, a site-specific commissioned sculpture that invites collective breathing, and curated percussion instruments dipped in water. Each activity looks to harness the power of difficult emotions and offer pathways to develop resilience, calmness, and connection. The new space also functions as the home for School and Family Programs, which connect younger generations to the teaching expressed in Himalayan art through social, emotional, and ethical learning.

 

Mandala Lab gong orchestra

 

Each activity on the floor is envisioned as a sensorial experience and takes inspiration from Buddhist principles that focus on self-awareness and the awareness of others. Visitors can engage with a scent and memory library, participate in a synchronized breathing activity, and take part in a gong orchestra with eight gongs suspended over water.

As visitors move through the lab they will examine the feelings of pride, attachment, envy, anger, and ignorance. Visitors will then be invited to experiment and attempt to transform these emotional states into a complementary wisdom. It is in this way that the Mandala Lab aims to offer tools and new perspectives for coping with the day-to-day challenges and emotional burdens brought about by personal and societal complexities.

 

Mandala Lab lab space

 

Highlights of the design include:

- a 2,700-sf multipurpose open floor plan bounded by light that converts for education, exhibition, and event needs

- fine metal mesh partitions that surround the spiral staircase and divide the space into four quadrants

- an alcove with rounded walls and acoustic panels where content can be deployed with a wide, drop-down projection screen

- flexible space for lights-on learning with tables and chairs.

The new Mandala Lab is set to open with a free admission weekend spanning Sept. 24-26.

 

Mandala Lab interactive display

 

Mandala Lab library view

Tags

Related Stories

| Nov 14, 2014

Bjarke Ingels unveils master plan for Smithsonian's south mall campus

The centerpiece of the proposed plan is the revitalization of the iconic Smithsonian castle.

| Nov 12, 2014

Chesapeake Bay Foundation completes uber-green Brock Environmental Center, targets Living Building certification

More than a decade after opening its groundbreaking Philip Merrill Environmental Center, the group is back at it with a structure designed to be net-zero water, net-zero energy, and net-zero waste.

| Nov 7, 2014

NORD Architects releases renderings for Marine Education Center in Sweden

The education center will be set in a landscape that includes small ponds and plantings intended to mimic an assortment of marine ecologies and create “an engaging learning landscape” for visitors to experience nature hands-on.

| Nov 5, 2014

The architects behind George Lucas' planned Chicago museum unveil 'futuristic pyramid'

Preliminary designs for the $300 million George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art have been unveiled, and it looks like a futuristic, curvy pyramid.

| Nov 3, 2014

IIT names winners of inaugural Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize

Herzog & de Meuron's iconic 1111 Lincoln Road parking garage in Miami Beach, Fla., is one of two winners of the $50,000 architectural prize.

| Oct 29, 2014

Diller Scofidio + Renfro selected to design Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs

The museum is slated for an early 2018 completion, and will include a hall of fame, theater, retail space, and a 20,000-sf hall that will showcase the history of the Olympics and Paralympics.

| Oct 23, 2014

Prehistory museum's slanted roof mimics archaeological excavation [slideshow]

Mimicking the unearthing of archaeological sites, Henning Larsen Architects' recently opened Moesgaard Museum in Denmark has a planted roof that slopes upward out of the landscape.

| Oct 16, 2014

Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials

The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.

| Oct 15, 2014

Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities

The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.” 

| Oct 12, 2014

AIA 2030 commitment: Five years on, are we any closer to net-zero?

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the American Institute of Architects’ effort to have architecture firms voluntarily pledge net-zero energy design for all their buildings by 2030. 

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Museums

UT Dallas opens Morphosis-designed Crow Museum of Asian Art

In Richardson, Tex., the University of Texas at Dallas has opened a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art—the first of multiple buildings that will be part of a 12-acre cultural district. When completed, the arts and performance complex, called the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, will include two museums, a performance hall and music building, a grand plaza, and a dedicated parking structure on the Richardson campus.




Museums

The Tampa Museum of Art will soon undergo a $110 million expansion

In Tampa, Fla., the Tampa Museum of Art will soon undergo a 77,904-sf Centennial Expansion project. The museum plans to reach its $110 million fundraising goal by late 2024 or early 2025 and then break ground. Designed by Weiss/Manfredi, and with construction manager The Beck Group, the expansion will redefine the museum’s surrounding site.

halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021