The new facility of BAMPFA (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is located between Center Street and the Berkeley Downtown campus.

The designers have worked on an old office building from 1939, focusing on the roof which becomes the protagonist of the project. A flexing wave-like profile in steel covers the structure with its simple, mimimalist lines.

The exhibition spaces, with zenithal lighting, can host a wide range of different art forms: video, new media, performance, installations.

The complex contains two cinema-theaters, art workshops, research centers, exhibition spaces and gathering places, a cafe, and a large LED screen facing the plaza outside.

The official opening of the museum is on Sunday 31 January, with the exhibition Architecture of Life that explores how architecture involves many aspects of everyday life, from an anthropological and sociological viewpoint. The show presents 250 objects, including everyday useful items, artworks, architectural drawings and models.

Foto: Iwan Baan, courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro; EHDD; UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA).