NARRATIVE RELIQUARY
A proposal for a branch of the New York Public Library system dedicated to printed works, both formal and informal, by queer authors. New York City is home to countless printed artifacts of queer culture that tell intimate stories and map change in the city. Cultural threads that have become embedded in the city can be traced back to these documents, but they are rarely collected in en masse. This collection invites visitors to understand the context around them through disparate stories or just casually wander between the stacks on sunny afternoon.
The architecture is defined by two systems:
1. Cross-laminated timber fins that vertically stretch the length of the building provide structural support. They are calibrated, cut, and shifted to create individual spaces and allow for passage between.
2. Two vessels that disrupt the array of fins and allow for larger collective spaces that hold both the reading material and act of reading.
This studio was completed with limited knowledge of the site context in order to allow more time dedicated to learning how people move through space, examining the relationships between key spatial conditions: passage, vessel, threshold, and envelope. What does it form impress upon the body and how can architectural elements lead from one kind of space to the next in a meaningful way?
Design Studio 01
Public Library
New York, NY
2021