Final Proposal — LIBRARY OF RELIGION
In the middle of chinatown, one can find a place to eat, shop, communicate, talk with others. However, one does not find a place of worship, a place to gain knowledge about each others religion. Zeroing in on the three abrahamic religions — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, I have designed a place where these religions are communally integrated and disintegrated in certain moments. The communal spaces include the eating area that is on the first floor towards chrystie st., making it an inviting space to collectively eat kosher, halal, and other types of food. The idea of eating is an essential aspect to uniting people together, being that it brings two or more to gather together. Furthermore, the other communal spaces include the auditorium, book stacks, and the panoramic top floor. The disintegrated spaces include the separate praying areas, which each space is dedicated to each religion, facing a specific direction.
As one enters the building, there is a major staircase that one can take which will bring you to the upper level, right outside of the purification room and the rest of the prayer spaces. The purification room and prayer rooms have two levels (lower = men, upper = women), separated for gender purposes. As one travels to their desired prayer space, there is a visual access between the person circulating and the person inside the prayer space. Furthermore, the entrance walls of these prayer spaces are made out of glass. Moving forward, there is the book stacks area that is located above the auditorium, which is connected to the learning spaces. The learning spaces are formed through the ceiling and walls of the prayer spaces below them. For example, the space above the muslim prayer area (middle) is an area to learn and discuss within the jewish and muslim in that the ceiling is the muslim ceiling and the wall coming from the jewish space. The book stacks have a direct relation to the book stacks in that they share the same book. Although these religions believe in their own torah, quran, and bible, they are all essentially one. However, the book stacks are meant to be an area for knowledge of each religion moving through each others books of worship, learning about one another.
The facade came from an interesting idea of the connection of new york to jerusalem and mecca. The “ray” connection that was made intended on being used as the source of light within the library. The more light that would penetrate through would be in the areas that it is most needed, for example, the learning spaces. In these necessary moments would be where the rays would get thicker, and its material would be entirely glass and the void would be translucent. In the upper level, the material is inverted in that the glass rays are now translucent and the void is glass.
