Submerge

This design for California’s La Brea Tar Pits Museum emphasizes the most important element of the site: the tar. Rather than serving as a backdrop to its content, the museum itself is also an artifact.

The experience of animals and early humans being trapped on the site is recreated through sensations of heat and light. Constant change in light and shadow allow the museum experience to differ depending on seasons and time. A striping system that represents tar is used across the entire site and building, and the museum coexists with its surroundings while standing out as a sight to see.

The museum acts as a geological metaphor as it emerges from the ground with its crystalline shape. There is a vast aggregation of seemingly floating objects, not unlike fossils floating within tar. The organization of exhibits, labs, and theaters is initially unclear, but once procession inside begins, visitors gradually piece together an understanding of the space. By the time they reach the top, this understanding is clear. Museum-goers can look out onto the site and see the tar pit below, where their journey of learning and discovery began.