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The Failures of the Nomadic Museum

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 The Failures of the Nomadic Museum

Hao Zheng
Final Thesis - Special Topics in the History of Architecture - Prof. Marco Cenzatti

Chapter1 Introduction to the Nomadic Museum

1.1 Brief Introduction

The Nomadic Museum was a temporary art gallery, designed by architect Shigeru Ban
for a Canadian photographer Gregory Colbert. It was built, initially, on pier 54 in New
York City and open in 2005. The pier is located on the Westside Highway at 14th street
and is part of the five-mile-long public Hudson River Park. It was a museum designed to
travel around the world to show the photographer's masterpieces, including 200
large-scale photos. Its first appearance was in the spring of 2005 in New York, and later
moved to Santa Monica in 2006 and Tokyo in 2007, and finally the containers were
replaced by bamboo structures and moved to Mexico City. The first version designed by
Shigeru Ban was built, using 152 containers as walls, and waste papers and vinyl as
columns and roof.

The Nomadic Museum itself was a work of art, but also an art gallery, which can be
moved. Each row of containers was stacked into four layers, and between layer and
layer, each container was arranged as crisscross, appeared like a huge chess board. The
containers were locked in the four corners, using special lockers. The walls of containers
acted as a roof truss and PVC ceiling supporting components at the same time.

The museum has a large non-pillar theater space, as well as several bookstores, which
were made by papers. Paper tubes in various sizes were used as chairs for the visitors.
From New York to Santa Monica, the exhibits were placed in 12 containers. There were
also recyclable paper tubes used for roof and reusable wood chips, as well as ground
gravels in the containers. Shigeru Ban said the Nomadic Museum created a unique
architectural concept. Especially, He confidently notified that the choice of containers as
the main building elements was because they could travel around the world, and
themselves would become a legend like the famous traveling photographer, Gregory
Colbert.
 Figure 1-1-1 Nomadic Museum in New York

1.2 The Containers

Container is a large loading object that has a certain strength, stiffness, and
specification. In the year of 1968, the No. 104 International Standardization Committee
drafted the ISO / R30-1968 "container jargon", from then on, the container has been
defined. This document has been changed
several times, however, the newest version
identified containers as follows. Container is a
transport equipment: 1. it has sufficient
strength, long-term reuse; 2. it is used for one
or more modes of transportation, it doesn't
require cargo transit when shipping; 3. it has
fast handling devices, in particular for the
process of transferring from one mode of
transportation to another; 4. it requires little
work to fill and unload goods; 5. it has a volume
of 1-3m³ or above.
Figure 1-2-1 Shipping Container
 Regarding the birth and development history of
containers, it has five stages: budding stage,
starting stage, growing stage, expansion stage
and maturity stage. To be brief of the history, in
1801's British, Dr. Anderson first proposed the
idea of container transportation, which was the
beginning of the concept of containers. In 1956,
the seaway container transportation became a
reality. In 1964, containers of 10, 20, 30 and 40
feet were eventually adopted as ISO standards,
Figure 1-2-2 Shipping Boat
and containers of these sizes had become US and
international standards. In Nomadic Museum, all containers were 20ft seaway
containers.

Steel cargo container is the most common container, which is currently used for
international multimodal transportation. As a rectangular hexahedron, its overall
framework is made by the thin-walled steel. Following is the picture of the components
of containers. All these components can be mass produced. After assembly, the
container can be self-supported.
 Figure 1-2-3 Components of containers

1.3 The Photographer (Sponsor)

Gregory Colbert is a storyteller, filmmaker, photographer, and naturalist, who is also the
creator of Ashes and Snow, the exhibition of artworks and films in the Nomadic
Museum. He was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1960. He traveled to India, Burma, Sri
Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica to film and
photograph interactions between human beings and animals. The exhibition went on to
open in the first Nomadic Museum in 2005 in New York City. Ashes and Snow and the
Nomadic Museum then traveled to Santa Monica in 2006, Tokyo in 2007, and Mexico
 City in 2008. Although it should
travel around the world, actually the
Mexico City was its last stop and
after that, the Nomadic Museum and
his exhibition never appeared again.

The Nomadic Museum, designed as

the space for the exhibition, drew
inspiration from the exhibitor himself,
trying to mimic the travelling
experience of the exhibitor, to store
all the exhibits and the building's
components, and to travel as a
Figure 1-3-1 Work of Gregory Colbert
whole. The design of the Nomadic
Museum has the most direct relationship with Gregory Colbert, the containers were like
a representative to reproduce the worldwide travelling of Gregory Colbert.

Chapter2 Innovation of the Nomadic Museum

2.1 Multiple Usages of the Containers

The advantage of the Nomadic

Museum is that, as Shigeru Ban has
been trying to do, it was built entirely
on low-cost, recyclable building
materials. The containers as walls,
when being disassembled, can be
transported around the world, and
itself can be used as containers for
other building components.
Figure 2-1-1 Elevations and Plan
Although the architect was not the
first to use containers as a building component in the Nomadic Museum, Shigeru Ban
envisaged that the container architecture could be routed around the world, due to the
good transportability of containers. All building components were stored in the
containers, and were transported together, assembled together.
 Regular container architectures always
regard containers as the units of the
interior space, so a lot of container
houses, container shops and so on
appeared. Undoubtedly, unlike those
projects, the Nomadic Museum regards
containers as a supporting structure
and a huge transportation carrier.
Regardless of the pros and cons of this
idea, Shigeru Ban opens up a new idea -
nomadic architecture - using containers
as a transportation method.

Figure 2-1-2 Axonometric

2.2 The Architect's Imagination

Shigeru Ban was the winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2014. He was known for
his use of the cheapest and most fragile materials. In the Nomadic Museum, he not only
defined the containers as a kind of cheap material, he also gave the containers cultural
meaning - nomadic architecture.

In Shigeru Ban's imagination,

"The structural walls were comprised of twenty-foot long steel cargo containers, which,
when stacked and secured, create a rigid columnar structure of steel."1

"At the conclusion of the first exhibition, the various components of the museum were
packed into a few dozen containers and transported to the next venue."2

"Originally intended to travel to exhibition sites around the world,"3

1 http://www.dma-ny.com/site_sba/?page_id=307
2 http://architectuul.com/architecture/nomadic-museum
3 David Douglass Jaimes. AD Classics: Nomadic Museum / Shigeru Ban Architects. Archdaily, January 03, 2016
 Figure 2-2-1 Sections
As mentioned above, Shigeru Ban's vision of the Nomadic Museum was wonderful.
However, first, in terms of construction, Shigeru Ban saw the containers as a structural
element with additional recyclable materials, which posed construction difficulties.
Secondly, in the disassembly, the cheap materials were easily damaged, which also
brought difficulties to constructing. Finally, but also the core, Shigeru Ban wanted to
make the whole building touring around the world, but in fact his vision did not come
true fully. These points of failure will be described in detail in the next chapter.

Figure 2-2-2 Original Containers

Chapter 3 Failures of the Nomadic Museum

3.1 The Failure of Traveling and Rebuilding

Although Shigeru Ban had done a good job of exploring the advantages of containers, it
was still unavoidable for the Nomadic Museum to become a failure.

First, at the beginning of the design, Shigeru Ban wanted the Nomadic Museum to travel
around the world. In accordance with the exhibition plan, the Nomadic Museum
relocated once a year. From New York in 2005 to California in 2006, and last to Tokyo in
2007, it completed two relocations in the first three years. In the fourth year, the new
Nomadic Museum was built in Mexico City, completely abandoning the original
containers, and using bamboo structures to replace the containers. Ironically, the
Nomadic Museum in Mexico City kept the paper columns and roofs. Following is a
description from David Douglass Jaimes in Archdaily:

"Originally intended to travel to exhibition sites around the world, Ban’s version of the
Nomadic Museum made only one more stop in Tokyo, with a configuration similar to the
Santa Monica setup. For a fourth version of the Nomadic Museum in Mexico City,
Gregory Colbert switched to Colombian architect Simón Vélez."4

In addition, after the construction of the Nomadic Museum in Mexico City, the building
never appeared again. The Nomadic Museum in Tokyo was disintegrated, and Gregory
Colbert began to seek for new partners.

What’s more, the Nomadic Museum had completed two relocations, but after each
moving, the original design changed. The Nomadic Museum in New York was a slender
building, and the Nomadic Museum in Santa Monica was a pair of shorter buildings, and
the design of the roofs of the Nomadic Museum in Tokyo also changed. It is hard to
admit that after the relocation of the Nomadic Museum, it was still the original Nomadic
Museum.

4 David Douglass Jaimes. AD Classics: Nomadic Museum / Shigeru Ban Architects. Archdaily, January 03, 2016
 Figure 3-1-1 Nomadic Museum in New Figure 3-1-2 Nomadic Museum in Santa
York in 2005 Monica in 2006

Figure 3-1-3 Nomadic Museum in Tokyo Figure 3-1-4 Nomadic Museum in Mexico
in 2007 City in 2008

3.2 Possible Reasons

3.2.1 Difficulties of Assembly, Disassembly, and Reassembly

Although the cheap materials Shigeru Ban used could reduce the cost of materials, but
the installation cost was more than imagined. The following is a record from an engineer,
who involved in the construction of the project:

"Its eighteen sections could be lifted into place only when there was no wind (otherwise
they’d blow away), explains Dean Maltz, an architect who partnered with Shigeru Ban
on the project. So, construction workers put up an American flag near the pier, and when
it wasn’t waving, they knew it was safe to proceed."5

The difficulties of constructing also led to the delay of completion, and the workers
should work longer. The following is a record of a worker, who involved in the
construction:

"Like many of the laborers who had been working seven-day weeks since construction of
the museum began in December, Jeff Blake was finally starting to take pleasure in
looking at the strange building, whose difficult construction had made the workers
virtual strangers to their families."6

Moreover, because of the bearing capacity of the port foundation, large machinery can’t
be parked on the ground, it needed to be parked on board. This brought further
difficulties to the construction:

"The crane was too heavy to go on the pier, so a barge had to be used. It took two
months to build the entire structure."7

So the Nomadic Museum, which should be cheap, actually was costly, because the
construction cost was greatly increased. And the cheap but fragile materials, under the
inaccurate construction environment, gradually wore and tore. This caused the error to
be released after disassembly and the materials were gradually damaged in transit.
When they reached the site for the next assembly, to build up the already half-damaged
materials was more difficult.

Figure 3-2-1 the Beginning of the Roofs Figure 3-2-2 about 10 Days after the
Assembly Beginning

5 Wendy Goodman. Have Museum, Will Travel. New York Maganize

6 Chelsea. The Nomadic Museum. New York Architecture Images
7 Wendy Goodman. Have Museum, Will Travel. New York Maganize
 Figure 3-2-3 about 30 Days after the Figure 3-2-4 about 50 Days after the
Beginning Beginning

3.2.2 Contradiction between Cheap Materials and Nomadism

Shigeru Ban originally envisaged the Nomadic Museum as a building to travel around
the world. The containers, as a structural component and also the carrier, only
completed two times of relocations, in the third time, the containers were completely
replaced by bamboo structures.

So I consulted a relevant personnel engaged in seaway transportation and found that,

according to the price when writing this article, the cost of seaway transportation is not
low.

First, for cheap and light-weight materials such as cardboards, transportation companies
set the cost based on its volume. Directly purchasing 1 cubic meter of new cardboards
costs about 200 US dollars, and transporting these cardboards by seaway from New
York to Santa Monica costs about 120 dollars. Taking into account the loss when loading
and unloading, as well as the loss when shipping, to transport the cardboards is not
cheaper than to re-produce the cardboards.

Also, for the transportation of the containers, the shipping cost is also quite high. To
transport 20ft container from New York to Santa Monica, whose weight is 2200KG,
according to the weight of the freight, the shipping cost is about 2000 US dollars. And to
purchase new containers in local costs about 2,500 US dollars for each, to purchase a
second-hand container costs only 1,000 US dollars. Therefore, transporting the original
material to the next location costs even more than rebuilding one.

This inconsistency arises from the contradiction between Shigeru Ban's cheap material
and the concept of nomadism. In the migration, nomads will only bring their necessary
items for living and valuable properties. However, the Nomadic Museum brought
low-priced items, which can be mass produced. This contradiction is irreconcilable, so as
long as Gregory Colbert chose Shigeru Ban and his concept of cheap materials, it had
been doomed the failure of the Nomadic Museum.

3.2.3 Limited Adaptability to Sites

The last reason for the failure of the Nomadic Museum is its limited adaptability to the
sites. The Nomadic Museum from the previous three editions shows that it kept being a
long strip shape and has not changed in any sizes, including the size of the roof. There
are two reasons why it could not make more changes.

First, the container itself as a modular

component, although each one
connects with others through eight
corners, in the case of a small load, it
can be regarded as a free-to-set
module, placed in an irregular grid,
such as the New Jerusalem Children's
Home in Johannesburg. However, in
the Nomadic Museum, all containers
were connected only through the
corners, so its shape must be Figure 3-2-5 the New Jerusalem Children's
rectangular, and the container could Home in Johannesburg
not overlap with each other.

Second, in order to maintain the

concept of nomadic architecture, all
materials must be used as the original
ones, and the size of components could
not be changed after the first
manufacturing. Therefore, when it was
built in a new site, it was almost
Figure 3-2-6 the Locker for Containers
impossible to build a different type of
building with the same materials. From the Nomadic Museum in New York to the
Nomadic Museum in Santa Monica, the construction team could not find a site that was
long enough, so it was divided into two shorter buildings, which was already the limit of
the Nomadic Museum to change.
Therefore, it was not easy to find a suitable place for the Nomadic Museum to set up. It
must be strictly rectangular and large enough. However, a museum (or an exhibition
hall), has a great value of using only when it is in the heart of the region. To find a neat
and large and undeveloped site in the center area of a city, regardless of the possibility,
the cost of using the site is already unacceptable.

Chapter 4 Conclusion

Shigeru Ban proposed the concept of nomadic architecture in the Nomadic Museum,
and he used the seaway transportation containers to achieve this idea. He introduced
the transportation industry into the architectural field, making a building, which should
be originally impossible to move, into a nomadic building, travelling around the world.
This is the greatest innovation for the Nomadic Museum.

However, the cheap but fragile materials, which Shigeru Ban used here, brought great
difficulties to the process of assembly, disassembly, and reassembly. The containers, as
well as those cheap materials, can be mass-produced, and the cost of transporting them
might be even higher than that of manufacturing them at the new site. So in the end,
the Nomadic Museum did not achieve the original idea of Shigeru Ban.

Therefore, a good innovation is not only a concept, but also a serious consideration. It
needs to be carefully considered for its feasibility, as well as its scope of application.

Sources

Figure 1-1-1:
http://www.archdaily.com/777307/ad-classics-nomadic-museum-shigeru-ban-architect
s
Figure 1-2-1: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/481885228863370873/
Figure 1-2-2: http://usgshipping.com/shipping-boxes-to-overseas
Figure 1-2-3: Chenchen Xia. CONTAINER CONSTRUCTION AND ITS PERFORMANCE
PRELIMINARY STUDY. Southeast University, 2013:P19
Figure 1-3-1:
http://hewondrous.com/photo-project-ashes-and-snow-by-gregory-colbert/
Figure 2-1-1: http://www.dma-ny.com/site_sba/?page_id=307
Figure 2-1-2: http://www.dma-ny.com/site_sba/?page_id=307
Figure 2-2-1: http://www.dma-ny.com/site_sba/?page_id=307
Figure 2-2-2: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355854808026374302/
Figure 3-1-1:
http://www.archdaily.com/777307/ad-classics-nomadic-museum-shigeru-ban-architect
s
Figure 3-1-2:
http://www.archdaily.com/777307/ad-classics-nomadic-museum-shigeru-ban-architect
s
Figure 3-1-3:
http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works/2007_nomadic-museum-tokyo/index.htm
l
Figure 3-1-4: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/308848486919701261/
Figure 3-2-1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h68C4B9RY
Figure 3-2-2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h68C4B9RY
Figure 3-2-3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h68C4B9RY
Figure 3-2-4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h68C4B9RY
Figure 3-2-5:
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/container-architecture-slideshow/all
Figure 3-2-6: http://china.makepolo.com/purchase/view.php?id=2666807

Annotated Bibliography

Chapter 1

Chenchen Xia. CONTAINER CONSTRUCTION AND ITS PERFORMANCE PRELIMINARY

STUDY. Southeast University, 2013
It is a completed paper about cargo containers and container architectures. Most
information of containers, including its components or history, can be found there. The
author is a graduate student of Southeast University in China, so it will be easier for me
to read. (Since I’m a Chinese.) And also it’s a graduate thesis for the author, and
Southeast University in China ranks top 3 in architectural field, so its quality is very high.

Chapter 2

http://www.dma-ny.com/site_sba/?page_id=307
This is the official introduction to the Nomadic Museum by Shigeru Ban Architects Office.
There is only a short review of the Nomadic Museum but most of the drawings are there.
 But as I mentioned before in class, no one will say his work is a failure, there is only
praise or description about the Nomadic Museum, and the article seems to deliberately
avoid its failure.

David Douglass Jaimes. AD Classics: Nomadic Museum / Shigeru Ban Architects.

Archdaily, January 03, 2016
A collection of the information by Archdaily. Good pictures and references list on it,
including both praises and criticisms. But it seems that the editor misuse some pictures
of the Nomadic Museum in California to the Nomadic Museum in New York.

Chapter 3

Christopher Hawthorne. A temporary case of pier pressure - With the Nomadic Museum,
Shigeru Ban takes a back seat to animal photographs. LATimes, March 09, 2005
It is a criticism about Nomadic Museum and also states its failure of traveling. Gorgeous
words.

Wendy Goodman. Have Museum, Will Travel. New York Maganize

It gives the description of the difficulties of constructing, including a statement of an
engineer, who took part in the construction process of the Nomadic Museum. This
becomes the evidence of its failure.

Chelsea. The Nomadic Museum. New York Architecture Images

It gives the description of some workers about the time-costing process of constructing.
Here is a funny sentence “Jeff Blake was finally starting to take pleasure in looking at the
strange building, whose difficult construction had made the workers virtual strangers to
their families.”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4h68C4B9RY
A video of the assembly and disassembly of the Nomadic Museum.

https://www.architectural-review.com/today/container-art-in-santa-monica-by-shigeru-
ban/8660570.article
A web page about the Nomadic Museum in California.

http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works/2007_nomadic-museum-tokyo/index.html
A web page about the Nomadic Museum in Tokyo.

http://openbuildings.com/buildings/the-nomadic-museum-profile-2451
A web page about the Nomadic Museum in Mexico City and its bamboo structures.

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