[conceptual] Design Competition

A library that specializes in materials related to architecture and the arts, the Athenæum sponsored a challenge to conceptualize what a new facility would look like fifty years into the future. The current Athenæum functions similar to a traditional library and must re-evaluate how to effectively catalog and distribute information in a digital age.

The proposed design envisions a building that functions as a machine, with the library materials cataloged and distributed by an automated storage and retrieval system. The building itself is designed to invoke the feeling of being inside a machine and yet emphasizes light and natural elements to bring a sense of humanity into an otherwise barren concept of a mechanical and automated future.