The development of projects for two libraries at once for David Adjaye is not the result of a happy coincidence, but a victory in an open architectural competition, which was held in the US capital about two years ago. The competition task ordered the creation of two reading complexes in two neighboring districts of the city - each with an area of 22.5 thousand m2 and a total cost of $ 13 million.
In addition to the library itself, they were supposed to include information centers, Internet cafes and lounge areas, in which residents of the surrounding neighborhoods could communicate with each other and just pass the time. According to the jury, it was Ajaye's proposals that best solved the set tasks.
The first library, named after Francis Gregory, a hero of the American Civil War, the architect decided in the form of a park pavilion, which perfectly connects the new building with its surroundings - the picturesque Fort Davis Park. Thanks to panoramic glazing, the dense greenery of the park becomes part of the interior, and the library itself, whose walls reflect the surrounding trees, seems to dissolve among them.
The architect also supports the theme of the natural environment with the help of unusual wooden elements - rhombuses, with which transparent walls are lined from the inside. Their light honey shade and rather large depth make the walls look like honeycombs, through each "window" of which a certain fragment of the park is visible. The library is protected from the too bright summer sun by a flat roof with wide overhangs.
And if in the first case the rhombus became one of the key themes of the architectural image of the building, then polygons are the basis of the second project. The Bellevue library consists of several fused bodies, each of which is a polygon in plan. Since this complex was designed on a site with a noticeable difference in the relief, David Adjaye raised some of the buildings on one-floor supports - this is how a new mini-square appeared under the library, which made it possible to preserve the existing pedestrian routes and place parking for bicycles.
It is interesting that the supports made of concrete are also polyhedra. The facades of the library itself are faced with glass, on top of which vertical wooden slats have been launched from the outside.
Let's remind that for Adjaye regional libraries are a familiar genre. In London, he built the so-called Idea Stores on
Crisp Street and Whitechapel Road, which combined a book depository with a media center, and gained great popularity.
A. M.
