The Under-Over Washington, DC

Services Provided

Design Competition

People Involved

Tim Bragan
Gaelle Gourmelon
Ainsley Rhodes

A design competition entry weaves together DC’s Dupont Circle and a local art space, creating a unified space for sharing, creating, and gathering.

MKSK teamed with VMDO Architects for the international Re-think Dupont Circle design competition hosted by Dupont Underground, an arts organization and gallery space that occupies the former streetcar tunnels below Dupont Circle in Washington, DC. The competition’s prompt asked designers to re-envision Dupont Underground’s main entrance and the surrounding Dupont Circle area.

At the surface, Dupont’s radiating boulevards extend their tendrils far and wide across the city, bringing various constituencies of the DC public together in times of leisure, demonstration, and the rhythms of daily life. In modern Washington, Dupont Circle is a treasured relic from an earlier age, an enduring public space in a shifting neighborhood and an ever-transforming city. Following Dupont’s long history of appropriation for the diverse needs of its public, “The Under-Over” refocuses the circle from horizontal plane to the vertical, reconnecting public life to the subversive narratives erupting from below. Through a series of undulating, interconnected strands, the creative force of Dupont Underground reimagines stagnant boundaries of above and below. The strands, at some points divergent and at others assembled, function as a spatial manifestation of a long history of making the space work for a variety of uses.

The team’s proposal is only the most recent layer, working in concert to amplify Dupont Circle’s significance as a site of public protest and community action. The Under-Over recognizes that the symmetrical, tidy Circle is shifting under our feet—that diverse parts of our democracy’s whole push and pull on the grounds of public life itself. Artistic practice, at its best, offers creative frameworks and propels us to better futures. The strands weave back and forth between the Underground and the Circle above, thrusting formerly invisible narratives of the underground into the light of day.

As a central node in L’Enfant’s plan for DC, Dupont Circle has knitted together disparate parts of the city for as long as it has existed in its current urban form.

The Macro:

The site-scale proposal harnesses the collective power of aggregated parts to a whole. A red multi-stranded ribbon emerges from the Underground to the Circle’s surface. Along the way, the strand splits and rejoins itself, creating separate spaces for lingering, play, or wayfinding. The strand weaves from below ground to above, signalling the interdependencies of support infrastructures to recreation, of subversive narratives to the democratic forum. At once a place to sit, a lighting element, and provocateur, the strand adopts various forms as it meanders through the Circle. Playfully, the strand prompts members of the public to use the existing space in additional ways, making way for new interactions and delight. This site-scale weaving signals a connection to the invisible underground, fastening that which grows beneath to public life above.

The Micro:

The micro-scale proposal creates drama at the juncture of the Underground and Dupont’s street life. In a rare moment of extremes, the strands rear up to canopy-height, offering shelter from the elements and a sculptural gesture of upward momentum. As they fold to plunge underground, the strands create an intimate platform for impromptu public speech or performance, poised and ready for the next public calls for justice or artistic expression. Lighting radiates from beneath the soaring strands, beckoning visitors to the Underground as the source of an unusual creative force from below.