Supervisé par Leon Koumouris (Studio Delta)
Melbourne, Victoria
2026

This design proposal for a library is the product of its immediate context, a reaction to it. Faced with the undifferentiated character that has come to define the contemporary cityscape, it aims to carve out a place, clearly defined and separate from its surroundings. Walls are raised around the gardens and library, to encapsulate and protect those who would wish to retire from the entropy of the urban quotidian. Here, as Robin Evans puts it, the walls serve as the armoury that preserves one’s integrity against the encroachments of the outside world. The library also sits beneath the street level; the descent symbolizes a departure from the rest of the city. The lower ground also heightens the walls once inside the library. Coupled, these interventions attempt to give form to a calmer, and more intimate microcosm amongst the urban hustle.

Once inside the library, one is invited to bring their reading outside in the gardens. The interior spaces house mainly books and redirect occupants towards one of two exterior spaces: a greater, sloping lawn and a smaller, more intimate garden underneath an overpass. The 10-meter wide built volume is organized around a central circulation axis, not unlike the Laurentian library. It also mirrors the compression and release from vestibule to hall in its Florentine counterpart. Low bookshelves define the corridor that connects to services, perpendicular library aisles and both gardens.

Heavy concrete panels anchor the library and assert its intent to separate itself from the outside world. The building's walls are sparingly pierced at a 10-meter interval with windows and glass doors to the garden. Natural light from above illuminates the interior spaces. The library maintains a complex relationship to the exterior; neither shut off, nor completely opened.

Once in the gardens, the readers find themselves mostly isolated from the city; only some artefacts manage to peek through. The garden walls frame the columns of the elevated railways that once ruled the site and the sloping ground exposes their footings. This renewed framing allows for a novel reading of the space underneath the railways. The added height mitigates the overpass’ heaviness and softens the columns’ grip on the surrounding area. The pillars and the derived platforms act as keys for appropriation, facilitators for occupation.