Library of Identities, Year 2, Project 3
The brief: a pop-up library, up to 20 square metres, with a site of our choice. The project: The Library of Identities- for Society Depolarization. Located on Andrejostas Pier, Riga, Latvia.
The site for the project was chosen because of its combination of the proximity to the city centre and its quietness, calmness. This industrial element in the middle of the river Daugava would be up to individual interpretation- if the aim is to achieve a record of identities, the space has to feel individual. The absence of class or nationality labels in the area would also help.
The library would function as somewhere to leave ones thoughts, identities, and then converse about those, to better understand each other.
The design employs timber and fabric only. On the approach, layers of fabric 'flags' flap in the wind, creating a calming, rinsing border between the city and the designed space. The visitors can then enter the library interior space, for contemplation, writing, drawing, recording ones identity. Outside, strings run between the two borders of 'flags' on which the identities, in whichever form, could be displayed and talked about. The whole structure stands tall at the end of the pier as a lighthouse, its effects, meaning projecting much further than its 20 square metre boundary.