People, culture and architecture: a library for Washington D.C.

Abstract

The ability to record collective experience and learn from it is one of the hallmarks of civilization. The library, in all its forms, has an integral role in this passing of experience; both in how knowledge is stored and how it is retrieved and used.

This role is the heart of this thesis investigation. How, in our time, can the library fill these traditional roles? Acknowledging the advent of the information age, what could the design response be?

I approached this library as a collection of spatial experiences. Architectural situations are used to relate people to each other, the library environs, and the library media. Though these relationships, and personal interaction, the library answers the call of a new age.