The Barnes Foundation opened the new Barnes museum in Philadelphia and this project seeks an architectural response to an intractable problem by bringing a part of the old museum and transforming it into the new building. Architecture has an ability to conjure form and geometry and the application of techniques may generate novel and progressive political outcomes. Its impact is diffuse, but persistent. By obsessively following the protocols and logic of the discipline and of the individual imagination, the architect does not avoid political engagement. The museum is a piece of geometry that one could manipulate the effect of the exterior and interior. The design follows the principle of the light phenomenon of refraction. The museum is sink half way underground and its interior mimic the effect as if one were to look at the museum underwater. This would create a new appreciation of the art collection.
