MUSEUM OF LIGHT

Located in Destin, Florida, the Museum of Light serves as a space to exhibit 19th-century luminist paintings. These artworks capture serene and expansive American landscapes created during westward expansion. The museum’s architectural narrative confronts the contrast between the peacefulness portrayed in these paintings and the violent history of Native American displacement and genocide. Through materiality and spatial hierarchy, the intervention makes visible the erasure of indigenous histories.

A water feature at the lower level reflects light upward, casting shimmering patterns across the ceiling to evoke the feeling of being submerged—mirroring how Native history has been metaphorically “washed away.” Above, slender columns lift the exhibition space, making it appear to float. The glass cladding, shaped in a wave-like pattern, not only reinforces the aquatic metaphor but also refracts light through horizontal glazing. These refractions cast dynamic, curved shadows throughout the day, animating the space and reinforcing the museum’s temporal narrative.

The upper level, which houses the art, employs a delicate and tectonic construction, emphasizing craftsmanship and reverence toward the exhibited pieces. In contrast, the lower level is designed with a stereotomic, monolithic approach, symbolizing the silenced and misunderstood history of Native peoples. Rammed earth walls convey a sense of permanence and weight, their surfaces etched with fragments of indigenous history—subtle, yet deeply embedded.