[Frame] Columbia University NYP 2013 Michael Phillips
Program
The most heavily traveled routes in between Place de Victor Hugo and Place Charles de Gaulle are Rue Copernic, Avenue Kléber and Avenue Victor-Hugo. Les Reservoirs de Passy are hidden by apartment buildings between Rue Copernic to the South and Rue Paul Valery to the North. The most dense clusters of people near the Reservoirs de Passy were found in front of cafés, restaurants, salons, hotels and pharmacies lining Rue Copernic and Place de Victor-Hugo. These high traffic nodes make Rue Copernic the busiest road with access to the site. However, pedestrians who travel along the roads surrounding the Reservoirs de Passy unaware of it’s presence. The massive stone walls on the East appear stark and austere and do not hint at what is behind them. The Reservoir to the west is nestled in between the houses and cannot be seen from the road. To most pedestrians, the site does not even seem to exist. The goal of the library will be to activate the Reservoirs de Passy by bringing the public into it and it back to the public. The most important elements of the reservoir are it’s enclosure by the surrounding urban fabric, the water, the massive stone materiality and the open spaces or voids. The voids are found in the spaces created by the vaults and the open expanses created by the nature of the large reservoirs. We will activate this dead site by setting in motion one of the core elements: water. Flowing water is mesmerizing, natural and magical and will serve as constant visual activity. Water will cascade down the stone façades of the site on the exterior and on the interior will flow down several shoots, penetrating several layers of the building bringing this beauty and activity and light with it. The entrance will be located on Rue Copernic behind a glass wall. Visitors will enter the library and find themselves in a two-story high atrium, with the stone vaults serving as the ceiling and structural support for the third floor. In the center is an enormous circular void, allowing sunlight to pierce through the reservoir and the library so that the sky is framed and the visitor can appreciate the reservoir’s massiveness, as well as the experience of being framed in a void. Since the Passy area has no vast spaces like this, the atrium will hold exhibitions, galas, formal parties or any large events. The reading room is housed in the space where water-filled tanks currently sit. The circular void creates many nooks and oddly shaped rooms which add to varying degrees of privacy for the library patron. The most private reading rooms are accessed via stairs from this level, where the patron ascends up to a private glass cube a story above, which is completely surrounded by water. Stairs lead from the main reading room up to the top floor where a glass reading room sits, seemingly floating on water. The Eifel tower can be easily seen from this vantage point. A large café sits on the north side of this glass structure, facing the lawn which is left natural to sit as a natural oasis away from the urban fabric of Paris.
Circulation
Distribution
Master Plan
e Klé
Reservoirs de Passy
Place de Victor-Hugo
Aven u
Av e
nu e
Vi ct
or
ber
-H ug
o
Project concept.
Place de Victor-Hugo
Rue Copernic
The most heavily traveled routes of the site
water and open space
Reservoirs de Passy
Rue Copernic
Dense clusters of pedestrians indicating usage
enclosure
stone
stone
Paris the site is dead
PLANNING
GRAND FLOOR PLAN
Floor Plan
Floor Plan
P R OM E
Level 3 PR
O M EN
E
AD
E
NA D
Level 1
LEARNING LAB
CIN
PROMENADE
A
CIA ER
CLOAK
MM
STUDY
STAFF
STUDY
STUDY
LIBRARY LOBBY
STUDY
CO
ATRIUM
RAMP
STUDY
STUDY
L
RA
MP
EM
STUDY
OPEN TO BELOW AND ABOVE
STU
DY
STUDY
CINEMA LOBBY
READING ROOM
MM
ER
WC
OPEN TO BELOW AND ABOVE
CO
WC
CIA
L
WC
ENTRY
40 meters 40 meters
Floor Plan
Floor Plan
Level 2
Level 4 LAWN CINEMA READING ROOM
ATRIUM LEVEL TWO/OPEN TO BELOW
READING ROOM
OPEN TO BELOW AND ABOVE
CA REA D ING ROOM
REA D ING ROOM
OPEN TO BELOW AND ABOVE
FÉ
RO O ING
GR
OO
AD
DIN
M
RE
REA
M
OPEN TO BELOW AND ABOVE
40 meters 40 meters
Sections
A’
N
A
The physical structure of the library that is not embedded in the reservoir is a glass cube measuring 40 meters on each side. With this translucent material patrons can read while experiencing the city of Paris in a whole new way. This previously inaccessible zone of the city will become a public park; an oasis of nature in the busy urban fabric. Sitting in the cafe, reading on the lawn or watching and listening to the water moving will be a calming cathartic experience. While patrons may relax, it is the structure embedded and constructed out of the reservoir that is now successfully activated using the materiality and elements that already existed at the site.
A
A’
B’
GLASS READING ROOM
CAFE
N
N
C
READING ROOM
C’
CINEMA LOBBY B
CINEMA
B
80 meters
READING ROOM
B’
READING ROOM
STUDY
READING ROOM
LOBBY
ATRIUM C
GLASS READING ROOM & CAFE
READING ROOM
CINEMA LOBBY 40 meters
C’
Exterior perspective view looking Northeast from Rue Copernic
Looking up from outside the cinema
The library atrium In the urban core, this is a unique and memorable building not just as a library but as an experience. The massive stone material looks like it will last forever, which gives freedom for what can be sculpted out of the shell. By choosing a minimal exterior design, we are keeping the memory of the place alive retention of the reservoir’s natural state.
View of reading rooms and large reservoir from the cafĂŠ
Initial conceptual sketchs of atrium