The Line Library

New York
(Academic)

Columbia University, GSAPP
Spring 2019

Studio Leader:
Mimi Hoang

Studio Critic:
Gordon Kipping

Library today serves more than just an archive of literature. It is an accessible public space that houses a variety of supplementary programs to enrich the functions of a library and engage the community from all possible angles.

The Line Library is a building that weaves library programs together with an existing park program. Through the unraveling of spaces of a library and spreading them across the site, this project aims to create unusual situations, where events between two types of public spaces.

Site Conditions

Our site locates in The Sara D. Roosevelt Park, which is situated in the border shared by four neighborhood. Divided by six streets, each with distinctive characteristics, every node of the park has its audiences.

Unroll & Deploy

To address the linearity of the site, I unrolled the library program and arrayed them according to their relative access frequency. Then, I paired them with their opposite counterpart in the park program to create maximum “conflicts.”

This method of unroll-and-deploy led to a series of small scale interior spaces that are accessible throughout the site and exposes the core of the library programs to the park.

Folding The Envelope

The library signifies key features of the building through the manipulation of the envelope. These gestures emphasis the weave between the library program and the park program.

Collage of Programs

Using collage as a technique to stitch programs together, I started with three programs from each type of public space.
1. Basketball Court x Stacks
2. Memorial x Reading Room
3. Lecture Hall x Playground

Adapting to Site Conditions

With a majority of community-oriented spaces made accessible at the ground level, function-oriented are placed at the second level to tie the ground level together and maintain practicality.