In what ways do you experience art in your daily life? As murals in subway stations, as the design on your coffee cup, as the generic wall hanging in your otherwise soulless office. While often, contemporary art is reserved for museums and galleries, a city dweller does not encounter them in their daily public spaces, instead, these serve as interjections to a routine. China and Berlin-based designers, BUZZ Architects imagine otherwise. Aiming to make art more accessible and a part of one's everyday experience, their projects reimagine typical art spaces. As the Chinese architecture practice mentions in a press release, "The art museum is a container for the occurrence of content and a place for interaction between the audience and artworks. A true art museum should be closely connected to the current state of people's lives and consumption scenarios, seamlessly integrating into everyday life and supporting people's new lifestyles." Exploring whether art can be interjected into spaces that are not typical museums or galleries, their project for MAHA HERmit Space gallery is a renovation exercise of the interstitial spaces of an underground parking lot.

The site for the galleries, three independent sunken courtyards in an underground parking lot of a community space in Beijing has been transformed through subtle interventions by the designers. As the architects elaborate, underground parking spaces are commonly seen as "a building's negative entrance" but are unavoidable paths for the entry and exit of visitors. Hence, introducing a space for artworks not only transforms the leftover spaces in these areas but creates a dialogical relationship between the local community and the necessary infrastructure. The project which is a redesign exercise aims to meet the functional demands of a contemporary art gallery while also creating a place where the community can gather. The intervention consists of three distinct areas that the architects have named: Islet Space, Cave Space, and Ravine Space based on the experience and design attributes of each.

Spread out in the central park of a high-end community area, the functions of all three spaces are divergent while adding to the community's utilities. Of the three spaces within the landscape design, the Islet and Cave function as conventional galleries for displaying art. The Islet Space which is the largest is located centrally. Apart from a main exhibition hall where natural light filters in through skylights, a room located away from the entrance serves as a community space for meetings and gatherings. The presence of natural light and the minimalist design allow the art displayed to shine. To ensure that natural light enters the underground architecture, a covered green roof with a circle of skylights is part of the design.

Similarly, the Cave space uses natural light as a poetic device to frame one’s experience of the artworks. Unlike the rectangular Islet, the Cave is designed like a fissure in the ground, with a sculptural cavity-like interior space. The fissure lets in natural light and landscape features into the gallery, inviting passersby to walk in and be subsumed into the earth. The continuous, curving walls in this courtyard also accommodate large sculptures and art installations.

Contrary to the other two spaces, the design of Ravine incorporates the functions of a community centre. On the roof, it includes a skateboard park, while the subterranean interiors are designed to include a climbing wall and an activity room. The activity room acts as an activator to the site, being used for community art fairs or creative activities, adding a new interactive perspective to the galleries.

The design by BUZZ demonstrates a keen ingenuity in the retrofit of interstitial spaces in public architecture. As they write, “Contemporary art can have a stronger connection with daily activities, and the interaction between art and people is not necessarily limited to fixed exhibition methods. Art can be integrated into the content-oriented activities of the community, becoming a form of non-targeted participation.” While the normal functions of the parking lot are retained, new connections and interactive spaces are created through the unexpected design of the gallery. Among these three spaces, visitors can freely choose their routes, either strolling along the undulating landscape on the ground or opting for a more direct path within the underground parking area, discovering new relationships and spaces of pause.

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