Queens Central Library
Nudging Vernaculars - Library as Third Space
“ ‘Third place,’ defined as a place between work and home that anchors community life and facilitates or fosters broader, more creative interaction. ”
-Ray Oldenburg
Tasked to create a new proposal for the Central Library location - with capacity to support the involved sorting and distributing operations of the network, Nudging Vernaculars looks to urban, vernacular forms of storage and to the existing library branches to evoke a sense of familiarity for the neighborhood of Jamaica.
Water Towers, Fire Escape Stairs, Brick, Signage - many pieces comprise the context of our site. With an interest in the notion of public wayfinding, each of these pieces question how the site and program may be approached in a way that understands contextual vernaculars yet find ways to nudge them towards new potentials.
Through its many layers, the building offers an experience of discovery. Through its formal ties to urban vernaculars, it expresses itself as a beacon to the public. It’s many layers of materials and transparency are welcoming yet protective of its neighborhood. The library seeks to be a space as comfortable and welcoming as home but with all the grandeur and amenities of a public space; a third place where you relax in public, where you encounter familiar faces, and make new acquaintances whether fictional or not.
On the main level, visitors are left to use the space as they feel - a space of serendipity. Workstations, cafes, reception and help desks orbit the stacks while their silhouettes shape interior, void rooms for lounge spaces. From this floor, you can catch glimpses of those on a hunt for a book above or those awaiting their bus in the park area below.
This plane provides access to the interior spaces of the stacks which house reading genres for adults, teens, and children. Acting as vertical circulation, the stacks are connected through a series of catwalks at varying levels. Deep inside the poche, shrouded by the books of the stacks, are intimate spaces of refuge, reading nooks, work and nap stations, and small-scale meeting rooms.
From East to West, the stacks are shrouded in a metal mesh to provide sun protection for the books in addition to the sawtooth, channel glass facade. Wrapped in several layers, the rooms within the stacks are provided diffuse light from skylights above.
