A Brief Inquiry into Designing in Succession / Antithetos
Beginning with a look at the Jussieu Library designed by OMA, it is immediately notable for its continuity and obscurity of circulation and occupation. I began my exploration by modeling the library and extracting its core principles: circulation, structural support, and program. This was accomplished through preliminary x-ray drawings and sections from isometric and elevation perspectives and a decompositional animation.
The Greek origin of the word antithesis, Antithetos means an opposition between two things, and that is exactly what this project embodies: open versus closed, static versus dynamic, public versus private, light versus dark, left versus right, and up versus down. The program consists of three theatre spaces, an A/V studio and recording room, classrooms, meeting rooms, personal work spaces, a terrace space, and a newly-renovated Marcy Library in Brooklyn, NY. In keeping with the original design of the building, the infamous serrated windows on the south elevation have been retained, and its dialogue continued throughout the project.
Y2 / SP2024
Professor Eric Wong
This project started with an examination of the Jussieu Library designed by OMA, noting the building’s structural and circulation systems.
From here, key moments that incorporated these three systems were extracted and modeled in the form of Le Corbusier Domino diagrams. Some of the extractions are directly from the Jussieu Library and some have slight changes to exaggerate the library’s program.
Examining the qualities and effectiveness of each domino, a new final iteration was created to accentuate the “scissoring” and continuity of the floors while maintaining the presence and function of key aspects regarding circulation and structure.
Using this new iteration as a base, the process of stacking and aggregating the domino began. The end goal was adapting a structural-circulation diagram to be a system that addressed light and dark space, all relative to body scale. This process was evolutionary, beginning with a singular move and progressing into more.
Gaining insight to the function and arrangement of space through these iterations resulted in the production of a final Domino stack. This stack will now be the basis of the project, informing the alteration, program, function, and design of the interior space and building façade.
A further inquiry into the Jussieu Library and the domino iteration, Antithetos is a proposal for the redesign of the Marcy Public Library in Brooklyn, New York. It retains both Jussieu and my previous exploration’s idea of continuous, yet obscured circulation and occupation.