Like a seismic fault line, the architectural crusts of planet earth are lifted and mingled to form an underlying continuous space of caves and niches, lookouts and overhangs. Rather than a single perimeter delineating an interior and an exterior, the façade is conceived as a sinuous membrane meandering across the site, delineating interior spaces and exterior gardens in a seamless continuum oscillating between the city and the park.

Toward the top, the towers erode in a similar way by creating a landscape of terraces for the people living and working there. The resulting complex provides a new park with a more than threefold increase in public green space, and an alpine architectural silhouette on the city’s skyline. In a synergy of public and private interest, by offering the space to the public where it is the most in need, we earn the freedom to redistribute the lost density above.

From the street level, a series of walls are pulled open for visitors to enter the commercial spaces from the north and south end of the buildings, while professionals enter from the front plaza into the daylight-filled lobby. Once inside, the linearity of the building façade continues horizontally: the pixel landscape of the stone planter boxes is in the same dimensions and pattern as the ripples of the building envelope.

Based on extensive feedback from the community, BIG’s vision for the Smithsonian Institution masterplan seeks to improve and expand existing facilities; create clear connections, access points and visibility between the museums and gardens; and to replace aging building mechanical systems that have reached the end of their lifespan, including structural reinforcements of the Castle to withstand potential seismic activity.

BIG-designed buildings were recreated in LEGO bricks by AFoL (Adult Fans of LEGO) master builders from all over the world. Each model was paired with the building’s three-dimensional digital information model that embodies all technical aspects of the project – from the functional layouts, structure and circulation to the mechanical services and materials – into a single digital twin of the built reality. With these two data points – the ‘low-res’ physical abstractions of the LEGO models and the ‘high-res’ digital specifications – visitors could see the complexity behind the playful simplicity.