Through Art is a public art forum located in downtown Lexington on the corner of Short and Market Street, near the 5/3 Pavilion and the Courthouse. The project addresses a growing issue in modern life: the decline of genuine, in-person human interactions. In a world shaped by technology, spontaneous encounters have become rare. Art, however, is unique. Art dissolves boundaries between people, allowing creativity, emotion, and curiosity to flow between strangers. This forum provides spaces to create, experience, and share art, using these acts as a bridge back to natural human connection.
The building is organized around two primary axes: one aligned with Lexington’s urban grid, and the other orienting the art studios northward to ensure consistent, bright, indirect light for artists. Throughout both the building and the surrounding park, the axis of the city and the axis of the artists intersect, symbolically and physically converging the civic realm with the creative one.
I read Life Between Buildings by Jan Gehl, where architecture is framed purely as a tool for facilitating human interaction. Moving forward I focused on this definition, where the art and design of the building itself to building shapes chance encounter and social interaction. this is visualized most clearly through the circulation, which itself unfolds as a walking gallery. the walking gallery is an experiential path that continuously links programs together. Along this route, the circulation becomes a device for connection, physically guiding visitors toward interaction through art.