Kirkwood Public Library – ikon.5 architects – US

Architect: ikon.5 architects
Location: New Castle, Delaware, US
Project Area: 22,500 ft²
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: James D’Addio

Set along a commercial shopping strip highway, Kirkwood Public Library is designed as roadside billboard announcing the public civic function of reading, learning and exploration within. The objective was to create a new branch library for a growing diverse community that would serve as the iconic community center of the neighborhood. Shopping malls and fast food restaurants flank both sides of the site. Large commercial signs are stacked along the highway where this library is sited and a small scale residential neighborhood is set one block in from the highway site. It is within this context, that the library appears as a collection of books set on the highway. Facing the highway, the building facade, of stacked horizontal cement board siding, is fashioned as a series of boxes that represent the edge of books piled up on their side.