Arch 201
Prof. Turan
Principles of Architecture 2, Fall 2010

Hannah Lee
Ring Within A Ring

The project is rooted in a series of studies of the relationship between program - stacked or aggregated - and form - compact or loose. The project sets an open civic center within by a programmatically dense solid.

Formal development began with a series of contracting and expanding rings - the interactions of the two energized edges defining the poche of program. An inward manipulation of the edge of the site then perpetuates a general movement towards the open civic center. Stability is maintained through a rigid interior edge, which counters the movement of the outer edge condition.

As a vertical articulation of the idea of the two rings, one end of the form lifts off of the ground, immediately creating a grander urban gesture to the busy intersection. Rather than passing through a threshold of specific library program, the city is now pulled directly into the civic area, from which it accesses the rest of the library. The sloping central courtyard, a flexible space for reading, gathering, exhibition, festivities and performance, serves as an invitation from a gradient from public to private space.