Forecourt of Kunsthaus Graz

The premises of the Kunsthaus, located at Lendkai near the city center of Graz, situates a significant cultural provocation positioned at the intersection of art and design. Our approach for the new entrance square of the museum can be seen as an experimental investigation, which translates contemporary aesthetics in a design, which is situated at the intersection of art and public space – factually and metaphorically.

As a hybrid typology, the new entrance area oscillates between two seemingly demarcated worlds: the institution of the museum and the constantly renegotiated public sphere. Equipped with phenomenal pink picnic tables and a red graphic pattern on the grey ground. The layout playfully tests the boundaries between infrastructure and design, functionality, aesthetics, common and extraordinary space. Regarding the museum’s building, the plaza has an indexical function as the signaling colours draw immediate attention to the institution’s entrance.

The significance of art institutions is questioned using these placed foreign objects that have no role in being there. Instead the abnormal forms and kinky colours provoke questions, surrounding their context in relation to a cultural institutions role in public space.

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