Student Work
1∕3
Title
Archive
Project Description
Tasked with designing a 25,000 square foot library that would house a fabricated Yale archive, the proposed archive focuses on 5 instances of historical erasure present in the often tense relationship between Yale and New Haven. For example, this archive illuminates the story of an African American Yale employee who broke a college’s stained glass window depicting slaves picking cotton. The space would serve as a place to archive the legal documents while simultaneously illuminating the often overshadowed narrative of the employee. Using these moments as a starting point for spatial studies, the form manifests itself as two primary systems that eliminate the need for typical floor plates, galleries, and partitions. The first is a series of ramps that wrap along the library’s envelope. The second is a collection of suspended plinths that vary in size and material within the central atrium. These two systems repeatedly intersect creating viewing platforms that engage the public and allow for stories of erasure to aggregate overtime. The convergences house the archive’s program from a cafe and theater to a counseling center and staging ground for protests.