MEDIA CENTER
Media Center - Ft Lauderdale, FL A society is composed of two kinds of people: the Readers and the Writers. Confined in the same community, the two groups help each other through communication and observation. Writers create ideas, write the news and expose these thoughts to those who observe, the readers. Requiring maximal concentration, writers need silence and protection from sun damage while readers are open to observation and free to communicate these ideas freely. Comparing a society to a building, the design called for a media center where the user may go through the transformations of reader to writer as the loop of knowledge is an infinite one. Exploring with methods cast and molding, form is found through anti-form to provide for primary and secondary spaces within the mass, eliminating the possibility of any obstructions. Typically, exhibits display work that is completed after time of hard work. The outcome is known. However, taking a step back, one may be able to exhibit the initial intention of the maker where the outcome is in progress and ideas are evolving. The program calls for a library and the spiraling circulation wraps around the core to exhibit the creation of art rather than the produced art itself. The people circulating around may see those performing their tasks through the louvers which are thin enough to provide a transparency and keep out intrusive direct light. The voids are wide enough to not be only for circulation but may be used for social interactions where the contoured steps may be wide enough to create spaces, seats and screening facades. Dealing with a program that requires delicate transitions, users divide themselves in two main styles of spaces: the focus zones, and the sharing zones. Having both in one area causes distractions and discomfort to those who are trying to concentrate on given tasks and those who choose to roam freely. Rather than creating a whole new mass to accommodate the two users, the form’s spaces are fairly split through methods of anti-form. Now, the two types of users share the building through interior and exterior divisions.