Imprimir

Phillips Exeter Academy Library

Biblioteca de Exeter

1965 - 1972
KAHN, Louis Isadore

Exeter (Nuevo Hampshire)
Estados Unidos

Enlaces
Autor
Bibliografía

Imágenes

The Phillips Exeter Academy library in New Hampshire is part of a set of buildings that said institution develops, in a traditional context that marked from the beginning the materiality and design conditions that the project has. The work stands as a sober, monolithic and free-standing volume within the campus that allows a quick and clear reading of both its composition and its function. Taking into account these criteria, it can be stated that the complex has a stereotomic character in which light chisels and subtracts volumetric units that generate the different functions of the program.

As far as construction technique is concerned, it is worth highlighting the dual nature of the building itself, in which we can distinguish an external face or sheet represented by the heavy brickwork and an internal articulated body composed of the concrete structure and the successive slabs that develop the program. It is, therefore, about generating an introverted building that allows it to carry out its functions correctly without harming its needs. The monumentality and timelessness sought by Kahn throughout his career can be sensed in this project, where the floor plan is developed from a tetrastyle room scheme centered on a large atrium nine stories high. The entrances to the building, which are located in each corner of the volume, avoiding complicated encounters, direct the user to a temporary ground floor, with the first floor being where the reception and organizational center of the library can really be seen. Likewise, the direct encounter with the large impluvium of light reveals the distribution and hierarchy of functions, where the shelves are developed around it and free up the exterior perimeter space to accommodate the work and study areas.

The spatial transition travels hand in hand with a transition of scale that is perceived from the main atrium to the individual and intimate nature of the desks illuminated through the exterior factory façade. Finally, the cold character of the structural and enclosure elements is calmed by the wood finish of the furniture and floors that reflect certain reminiscences of traditional library architecture.

Fergus Paul SCOTT

Subir