The Trap Music Museum

“ The Space In Between ”

Urban Design. Master Planning. Museum Design.

Fourth Year Studio - Fall 2021

Professor Herman Howard

Location Travis St NW, Atlanta, GA 30318

The Team Samantha Speights, Dani Villareal and Anli French

Stage 1

Empathize - Research

The Goal

The concept of the Trap Music Museum design is titled The Space In Between. Our main goal is to reintegrate the west side of Atlanta with the fabric of the city by designing a space that bridges the gap. We achieved this by looking at the project through three different scales. First, is the master planning scale which concerns connecting the existing bridge on the Donald Lee Hollowell corridors to Marietta street. Next, is the urban design scale which includes three buildings that focus on community program and housing. Finally is the architectural scale, that pertains to redesigning the existing Trap Music Museum.

The Site

The site is located in Bankhead, Atlanta, a portion of the city that is underrepresented and known to some for crime. However this area has a rich history in the Trap Music Industry with huge artists such as T.I, Kilo Ali and Shawty Lo growing up here. While Trap music is known for drug activity it is also centered around building a community. The genre of music is well known due to the authenticity of its stories and connections to other underrepresented communities experiencing the same struggles. This part of the city is historically disconnected from the rest of the city. Less than 1% of children living in Bankhead enroll in Georgia Tech even though the communities are adjacent to each other. The site is uniquely located on a portion of the belt line that is open to public use but is not typically visited. The Trap Music Museum is the only tourist attraction in this area at the moment. The site is also uniquely positioned directly in-between a new Microsoft headquarters that is set to be completed in the next ten years and The Georgia Institute of Technology.

Precedent Studies

I took my own trip to the Legacy Museum and Lynching Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama as a precedent study for studio. As I walked through the exhibits I wrote down each of my sensory experiences and the emotion they provoked. The culmination of architecture and digital interaction implemented in subtle ways to control experiences inside was profound to me. It is the moment when designers synthesize research, aesthetics, and experiences that draws me to design. Below is a summary of my findings that I compiled for my class.

Stage 2

Define - Concept

The Concept

How do you encourage integration between two communities that live adjacent to each other but don’t collaborate? The answer to this question lies in shared experiences. Shared experiences reveal hidden similarities and values across communities. Fostering communal activity provides exposure to new opportunities that one would not otherwise experience interacting with like minded individuals. The concept of the project as a whole is creating the space in-between. A space that encourages walking in a city whose culture is dominated by the motor-vehicle. The museum serves as a catalyst for activity with more visitors per year than The High Museum. Throughout the semester we studied various motifs that help define the space in-between we would set out to create.

Conceptual Programing Model

Concept Collages

We made these collages as a way to express our early design priorities. They represent the synthesis of history and the present.

Stage 3

Ideate - Design

Master Planning Scale

“How do we design a space that connects communities without losing the integrity of its history?”

There is an existing bridge at the end of the Donald Lee Hollowell corridor that is deteriorated and famously used in Trap music videos for its unique view of the city. Rather than demolishing the bridge our plan includes renovating it as an observation deck and adding it to a new bridge that connects to Marietta Street and our site. By creating a space in-between the new versus the old we retain the history of the bridge. By also including information about its history on the new bridge, the bridge serves as a museum as well. Upon entering the site a moment of arrival is achieved through a large ramp that runs underneath the first structure. The bottom of this ramp leads to the public food court of the Museum as well as open green space at the center of the urban plan. The top of the ramp is also joined to community services as well as the top floor of the atrium in the Trap Music Museum. This is achieved through a network or pathways and bridging moments.

Master Planning Analysis Creating The Space In Between Communities

Urban Design Scale

“Harmony between public and private spaces ”

Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3 (Final Configuration)

This configuration was chosen because it allows for a centralized green space. It also provides subtle separation from surrounding residential homes.

Exploded Axonometric Diagram

Museum Design Scale

“The intersection of enjoying history and making history ”

The Architectural scale concerns the design problems of Trap Music Museum. After touring the museum and interviewing the building manager we determined the steps necessary to create a space in between while achieving the clients goals. These included creating space for one to enjoy history while making history. Programmatically, this means including production spaces as well as classrooms, meeting rooms, exhibit spaces, food hall and community space. Experientially, we needed to design a space that encouraged integration between different communities through adjacencies and hierarchy of spaces. The key features that reach these goals include the atrium, facade and bridging moments.

**Program** reflects the experience of a trap artist’s life with exhibits that answer the above questions

The Atrium

The Atrium of the Museum serves as the heart of the structure as well as a space in-between public and private activity. The atrium allows the individual to move between buildings, exhibits, the bridge and the Beltline. It is the catalyst for all activity within the space by connecting to the bridge, each floor of the museum and the ground floor.

Inspiration
Sketch

A screen located at the top of the atrium evolkes the image of a speaker and provides the perfect location for the existing Trap Music Speaker exhibit.
Product

Trap Music Atrium Collage with Existing Speaker Exhibit

The Facade

The Facade of the structure continues the logic of the bridge to create a visual space in between allowing the concept to show in the design. The X shaped pattern inspired by the original bridge on site is carried through the facade at a variety of scales. Each scale is assigned to a function with the smallest scale used for handrails, then medium scale for exhibit spaces and the largest scale for the atrium. This provides a hierarchy of spaces reflected on the face of the structure.

Diagrams

The Form of the structure was found by deconstructing a rectangular shape that bridges the adjacent buildings. The Atrium serves as the geometric center creating tension.