BP4: a testament to sir henry's big 3

"The end is to build well.  Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight."

- Sir Henry Wotten, The Elements of Architecture

In Friday's class, we took a second tour of our UNCG campus, but with a much better understanding of our surroundings.  This time, we discussed the buildings in relation to firmness, commodity, and delight.  Based on what we saw, I definitely feel that the library offers a space which best identifies with these three characteristics of a "well building". 

I feel firmness is a quality up for interpretation.  This could relate to the power and solidity that a structure could imply based on its aesthetics.  However, I believe that the quality I should be dealing with is the library's ability to stand the test of time. An excellent example representing the quality is the massive, circular stone entrance. 

view of library entrance. behold the majesty.

The library definitely fulfills its utility in the commodity department.  The point of this structure is to contain knowledge, in hard copy form, of course, and simultaneously provide a place in which students have designated areas to focus on their work. 

silly students working when they could be could be engaging in (illegal) college behavior..

For me, nothing absolutely stands out in our library besides the entrance and the sloping walkway to the EUC building, which is often the most exciting part of the journey.  In the end, it is just another generic library setup.  There is no ingenuity.  There is no heart.  As a lesson in delight, I give you Louis Kahn's Exeter Library.  A simple idea translated on a monumental scale.  It is an interior which welcomes the viewer and manages to create a feeling of belonging throughout the library, with its beautiful circles.  Lesson 2: In 2004, Rem Koolhaas designed the Seattle Public Library with a very unorthodox exterior.  The coming together of such large geometric shapes is magical at this scale and the cross-hatched texture further heightens this sense of grandeur.  Any given vantage point for either of these structures will absolutely hit you like a freight train of delight, filled with hamburgers.  It's that good!

Among Louis Kahn's Legacy. The Exeter.

Rem Koolhaas' modern approach. Seattle Public.