Studio Other Spaces Unveils "Common Sky" Sculpture at Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Studio Other Spaces, led by artists Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, has designed a sculpted installation named Common Sky that wraps around an outdoor space with skylights in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. Common Sky is a vast glass and mirror dome made from hundreds of interlocking mirrors and translucent screens.
The installation was designed as part of the museum’s redevelopment project headed by the New York office of the architecture group OMA. The artwork removes a mostly unutilized outdoor courtyard of American architect Gordon Bunshaft’s modernist Seymour H Knox Building from 1962.

“Combining a geometric design with a lighthearted, artistic attitude, Common Sky is an engaging sculptural expression. In its artistic capacity, it makes you more aware of your external surroundings and of Buffalo itself. It emphasizes subjective and hard-to-quantify aspects, such as feelings and participation.” Remarked Olafur Eliasson, co-founder of SOS Studio Other Spaces.

The New Common Sky’s Design Concept

The canopy’s multiple levels, held up by white-painted steel, include mirror and glass panels alternately.
The panels in the patio come together in the middle to form an opening that tapers to the ground where a hawthorn tree originally stood. Because of its tree-like shape, the building doesn’t need extra bracing to keep its canopy open. Mirrors were chosen over glass for the canopy’s construction to achieve this isolating impact.

By deflecting sunlight away from the canopy, the mirrors lessen the demand for cooling systems and help keep temperatures down. The area is surrounded on both sides by an enclosed terrace, and the stone floor is illuminated with a dynamic dance of light and shadow from the screens.

Studio other spaces claimed that the material and design decisions were made to maintain the courtyard’s link to its natural surroundings by “non-classical architectural” means without compromising the integrity of the original Bunshaft design.

“The building’s architecture is one of a kind since it incorporates the park and other nearby structures with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. We augmented the current setting with the concept of a contemporary courtyard to produce an original piece of sculpture that was designed specifically for this location.” Added Sebastian Behmann, co-founder of Studio Other Spaces.

The new museum building that OMA has built for the site also has a glass exterior. Thus, the two glass elements serve as a visual echo. OMA also made a new entry to the Seymour H. Knox Building as part of the museum’s renovation, allowing visitors to enter the courtyard from the nearby Delaware Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted designed.
Studio Other Space collaborated on the Common Sky project with Herwig Bretis of ArtEngineering and Hahner Technik, a steel builder based in Petersberg.