Libractory (Library + Factory)
An advocate for maker literacy in the age of the digital economy, Libractory embraces the ad hoc nature of learning. Occupants of the building, nay users and active participants, are encouraged to disrupt and engage architecture depending upon their ever changing needs. A fabric of flexible steel drapes the building with meticulous anchor points and pulleys, exploring the spatial qualities between building edge and urban context.
Elevation Oblique
Users are encouraged to manipulate the building's facade in live time by pulling on a network of tracks and pulleys that connect the building to the chain mail curtain.
Libractory patrons are encourage to use the building as a source of raw materials. The wood building's open-air space is enclosed by a series of walls consisting of stacked lumber. Libractory should always be in a state of flux, presenting itself as a manifestation of the patrons' needs and skill.
Section Oblique
early section of how Libractory will respond to San Francisco skyline
inspiration sketch
early sketch of facade mechanics
In the era of the digital economy, craft and maker literacy has ultimately declined; an unfortunate victim of late stage capitalism and its hyper specialized, deskilling nature. Yet, tools and maker knowledge should be a form of collective literacy, and framed as knowledge and considered a form of capital. The Libractory’s mission statement is to facilitate experiential learning, foster social capital, and sustain craft literacy within the community it serves.
The architecture is demonstrative of these values, utilizing vernacular materials in an expressive yet simple style, relating to the architecture of previous warehouses and workshops, with the delicacy and formality of historic libraries. Each of the buildings (woodshop, metal shop, library) foster the value of iterative experience: a manifestation of programs circling back on one another, connected yet distinct. The research explores the ways in which these iterations might be bolstered through the architecture, one that is always in a state of transition.