Somnium Art Gallery: Clean lines and natural light

Just north of Somnium Waypoint you can find the Somnium Art Gallery, a modern looking construction built on a medium sized parcel.

The first thing that catches your eye when you approach it is the wooden gate, in the shape of a triangle, resembling the bow of a sinking ship almost, just before it descends to the bottom of the ocean. It has no specific function, but it works well to break the square shape of the gallery itself.

The gallery is a simple construction, essentially two rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other, the upper one a few meters displaced, shifted forward, relative to the lower one. A simple, but rather effective trick to create some more interest. If you stand in front of the wooden gate or ‘bow’ it’s actually quite futuristic looking.

The square style of architecture lends itself well for the Builder tool. The gate seems slightly off center though, which is probably because the wooden plank boards needed to be tilted along multiple axis, which can be a bit tricky.

The gallery has a lot of glass, especially the upper part. Even the roof is almost entirely made of glass. It all looks very light, bright and clean and is very functional as it allows seas of sunlight to enter the building and illuminate the – still largely missing – artwork.

An odd feature is that to get to the upper floor you have to follow a ramp on either side of the building. On the outside that is. There is no way to get to the upper floor via an indoor staircase or ramp. You can’t even jump to the second floor when you are inside. For that you have to step outside first. It’s a minor flaw in an otherwise simple, but well constructed and functional building.

Concrete, glass and wood, those are the materials used. And the entire construction stands as a rather small, but attractive build. With clean lines and plenty of glass for natural light. Scandinavian in its expression.