The classic viewing space of a museum is calm, bounded by walls and ceilings, and well lit. The space is static. The room is kept simple so as not to take away from the viewing of the art collection being displayed. The 2x4 Museum project called for students to design an anti-museum. Where typically calm, this museum would be dramatic. The arts’ presentation would delay its exposure as opposed to being overt. The building (if we can call sticks and cardboard a building) itself should embody the art - long, engaging, dynamic, etc.

Focused on seeing the world around us, the end of first year studio draws the students to realize their own process of seeing – that seeing is an act that precedes definition, a kind of pre-action controlled through intentionality, interpreted by an internal filter that appropriates meaning. Part of what makes a designer “good” is their ability to dislocate their own subconscious gaze in order to see the problems they are solving through the eyes of those they are designing for. A doghouse does not have to perform like a human house (although sometimes it does), and so on. This project, dubbed “The Lighthouse,” challenged the students to design something architectural that brought others face-to-face with their own inner sight.