PD Primer - PennDesign - University of Pennsylvania

having fun
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dry heave in the mÜttER mUSEUm
19 S 22nd Street (btw Chestnut and Market) www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp
When naming his band Motörhead, Welsh metal
god Lemmy Kilmister claims he added an umlaut,
not to guide pronunciation but “to make it look
mean.” One wonders if Philadelphia’s own diacritically
acclaimed Mütter Museum was the first to
establish the umlaut as today’s preferred mark of
the beast. The museum of the College of Physicians
proudly boasts a collection of more than 20,000
haunting “objects.” The visible majority of these
appear to be the preserved bits and pieces of 19th
century medical unfortunates: i.e. people. Inside
the museum, a wall of skulls decimated by syphilis
vies with a skeleton of conjoined twins for your
attention. Sliced sections of a human head demand
closer inspection. Did I mention the museum
houses the world’s largest preserved human colon?
Despite attempts to present the collection with
tact and scientific acumen, a kitsch Chamber of
Horrors ambience reigns over the Mütter’s largely
subterranean galleries, ultimately lending the
whole ghastly display a rather endearing—if no less
grisly—charm.
lower your pulse at ShoFUSo hoUSE &
GARdEn
West Fairmount Park/ www.shofuso.com
The words serene and architecture are not often
paired in the design studios of Meyerson. Dynam-
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ic, emergent, reflexive, catalytic, rigorous and, lately, even
horrific are all candidates more likely to precede architecture’s
utterance—words designed to keep a student’s adrenaline
surging all night long. Who’s going to stay up 25 hours a
day, eight days a week in search of an irenic, tranquil, sedate
or serene architecture? We might even have to maintain lucid
mental states in order to produce such work! Whether or
not we ever strive for designs that impart restful calm over
destabilizing momentum, visit ing such projects is good for
our health. We are fortunate to have the Shofusu House
nearby. Designed in the manner of 16th century Japanese
villas, residences like Shofuso once housed scholars seeking
a serene environment for reflection. Indeed, after the din of
the studio, it’s easy to welcome the meditative hush suffusing
the house. When the villa’s sliding walls are opened to reveal
its elegant garden, the house and landscape invoke a profound,
singular stillness. Though now thoroughly embedded
in its current site, the building was first exhibited at the New
York MoMA in 1954. The garden was designed when the
structure was relocated to its present position in the Horticulture
Center in the West Philly section of Fairmount Park.
Shofuso’s legacy as artwork will be further extended in 2007
with the installation of site-specific murals by the acclaimed
Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju.
cycle scenic WEST RIVER DRIVE
West River Drive (btw Spring Garden & The Falls Bridge)
Philly drivers are out for blood. They habitually roll through
stop signs. They compulsively pull into crosswalks. When a
light goes green, they love peeling out to make a quick left
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