Spring 2017
Generated by an in-depth inquiry into the architectural capacity of the structural frame, the BiblioTech Intersect acts as a new library for Brooklyn, defined by the capacity of frame systems to literally capture and frame architectural and programmatic experiences. Tectonically, the project attempts to explore the resulting architecture should different, frame systems begin to intersect, overlap, and become juxtaposed with one another.
The idea of intersection becomes particularly relevant in relationship to the context in with the project is situated, as the site is located at the intersection of variegated. Brooklyn neighborhoods; as such, the project attempts to reconcile differences of scale, program, and identity via these framed intersections.
The library itself is a new mediateque and community center composed of sequence of overlapping structural frames. They nest and intersect in section forming a simultaneity of different programs and scales of inhabitation. The rhythmic nature of the frames creates a screened interface between programs and between circulation and program and a visual orientation that opens or closes to the city grid. The grand reading room spans between the building cores like a bridge lifted off the ground. A series of smaller frames intersect the reading room forming mezzanines and supplementary spaces perched over the city and plaza below. At the ground level, the public sidewalk is pulled beneath the building into an outdoor reading room and public café in order to further engage the library with its surroundings.
