Kohler Art Library Renovation

The Kohler Art Library is located in the Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, along with the Chazen Museum of Art and the Department of Art History. It serves as the primary resource on campus for materials and information regarding the visual arts of painting, drawing, architecture, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, and decorative arts.

The project aims to re-envisioning the Kohler Art Library both functionally and conceptually to celebrates its unique characteristics being an important landscape on UW campus.

Concept Statement: ORDER & DISORDER

Order is the state in which everything is in its appropriate place, arranged in relation to a particular structure and established rules. The desire for order has been salient in the theory and practice of architecture and design - aesthetic, structural, political, and social orders have been forced and reinforced, but also questioned and challenged. Disorder, at the other hand, represents creativity and spark moments of inspiration. Is order liberating or constraining, or both?

The design of the Kohler Art Library wants to make people rethink the relationship between order and disorder through the architectural elements such as the gradient transition of the ceiling panels from “order” to “disorder” shown in the picture above, the central display installation representing the order of the ceiling grids and the chaos from flooring patterns, and the natural of library being in order, in disciplines, in contrast with human activities happening in the library being lively and dynamic.

More importantly, the design highlights the process of thinking and inspires the creation, discovery, and sharing of knowledge on the UW campus.

The project aims to re-envision the Kohler Art Library as an inspirational space that offers flexible and high-quality spaces for various user groups, while also celebrates the connection of the library to the surrounding art community and the library’s unique characteristics being an important landscape on UW campus.