THE LECHMERE LIBRARY:
This library privileges the person that privileges it.
The more you invest in it, the more it will give back to you. If you are curious, noncommittal, you will still get a taste. It will let you sample its periphery, so that you might return later when you have more time. To the passerby, the library presents the notion of a future encounter with that which is protected within its walls. To the commuter, it will provide temporary shelter and the morning caffeine fix. To the browser, it gives quick access to desired info-fix. And to the reader and user it will open the depth of its curated and expertly selected collection.
GRADIENT OF COLLECTION AND DISPERSAL
The gradient of commitment is mediated by its oblique planes. And the views that it allows across the different grain of inhabitation in its four quadrants are always collected back together by the oblique. The exaggerated perspectival views and the light washing down the oblique tease movement through and the exploration of this building, sideways and upward. One is never granted the total view, but the experiences of the building’s fragments are both varied and related. The architecture’s task here is to recast the expectations and the experience of the library in a stranger light, it facilitates discovery and pleasure in that discovery, both individual and collective.
Library Relationships + Programmatic Qualifications Plans: Oblique Programmatic Gradient
Breeding the Library: Oblique Children Parents
Section: Hierarchy of Transience:
Other Library Program ` Books/Stacks/Storage
up More time invested: researching for long hours, studying, retreating with books and media 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Medium: attending event, socializing, relaxing, short project, browsing
Less time invested: on the go, just passing through, grabbing specific information needed ground
Time Investment hours
minutes
connector/facilitator to media/information
media/information consumption of media/information
Number of Divisions
1
STUDY ROOMS
ADMIN OFFICES
MEDIA STORAGE/SHELVING
LOADING
BUS PLATFORM / WAITING
slow
MEDIA ROOMS
SPACE ACCESS TO SUBWAY
BOOK STORAGE/SHELVING
PUBLIC
CIRCULATION
EXTERIOR
DESK(S)
BOOK
BOOK MEDIA SHOP CAFE GALLERY
AUDITORIUM
READING/CONFERENCE CARRELS
Offspring of 2 and 5
ground
size describes square footage of program
fast
2x5: 1b
2x5: 1c
2x5: 1d
2x5: 1e
2x5: 4a
2x5: 4b
2x5: 4c
2x5: 4d
2x5: 4e
2x5: 3[X]a
2x5: 3[X]b
2x5: 3[X]c
2x5: 3[X]d
4
SUPPORT
SPACES
2x5:1a
3 [X]
3 [T]