Sculpting a 3D diagrid to create an individual monumentality

In contrast to the grand, monumental public spaces of many 19th century libraries, contemporary bookstores tend toward informal, intimate environments. The project seeks to reconcile this disjuncture between the grand collective and the intimate individual reading spaces to create a rarified experience of these rarified books.

To shape this experience, the project critiques the superficially applied diagrid of OMA’s Seattle Public Library (2004). There, the monumental spaces remain on a collective scale; individual spaces (reading carrels, computer workstations) have a monotonous, banal quality as they are defined by repetitive furniture systems that “stuff” collective spaces enclosed by the diagrid curtain wall, with little relation between the two scales. In contrast, Library Diagrids aggregates a diagrid module in plan and in section to create monumentality on the individual scale.

On the urban scale, a through block plaza beneath the entire building creates a public park and frames a visual axis to a landmark church. This outdoor space provides relief from the neighborhood’s crowded blocks and narrow sidewalks for patrons and the greater public alike. 

Spatializing the diagrid to create a personal monumentality 

Personal monumentality merges two library paradigms: the monumental 19th C library and the intimate contemporary bookstore 

Spatializing the Seattle public library's superficial diagrid to order the plan and section 

Aggregation of diagrid module 

Urban strategy: Opening a congested urban site, creating a new visual axis 

View up from the public plaza 

Longitudinal section of through block public space with reading rooms above and book stacks/auditorium below 

Oblique geometries create forced perspectives 

Latitudinal section 

Ceiling detail 

Plan L5: Reading rooms 

Plan L4: Reading rooms and Offices 

Plan L3: Reading rooms and Public services 

Plan L2: Public services 

Plan L0: Public plaza 

Plan B1 Shop and Auditorium 

Plan B2 Book stacks 

Oblique views of oblique geometries