“The Loop of Life”

Supervisor Teachers - Ella den Elzen & Cameron Cummings

“Loop of Life” is a zine that illustrates my architectural analysis of Louis Kahn’s Class of 1945 library, using Mbembe’s “The Power of Archives and its Limits” as a critical framework for the design and program of the archival building.

The critical framework used is based on archives being seen as debris of the past. They represent the act of dying, which I consider to be representative of death. In this sense, archivists and historians are representatives of mediums, as they act as guides for the living to walk amongst the world of death.

Now that death and mediums have been established, where is the life?

To reach life, there are two inevitable steps to take - firstly, to dwell and then birth. Dwell was denoted to the areas that were passive against death - meaning the archives. Every area whose only role was to accept the content of the archive was denoted to be passive. On the other hand, birth was denoted to the areas that took action against death. Every area whose role was to create with death meant that there was a ritual of resuscitation of life, a birth in the making, a place to inhabit from where they may continue to exist and express.

Accordingly, I classified the areas based on their role in the library’s program and examined how the visitor’s experience - its access and work on archives - are affected by the building program’s narration