Eternal Present

Eternal Present

Druckman, Hannah

Silver Spring, MD, USA

005-LF-S047

2014

The Catholic University of America

Student

While the world is seemingly moving into a more and more digital age, there are traditions and objects that still remain at the core of practice and tradition. This duality is likely to open up a new wave of learning: one in which both the students (people) and the teachers (tradition and artifacts) engage critically to create a flow of dialogue that is then made public through the use of modern communications and human interactions.
The changes most likely to occur within the Philadelphia Athenaeum are increased foot traffic due to a wave of urban renewal and historic conservation, an increase in the number of historic artifacts stored due to the passage of time, as well as the rediscovery of the natural world as a vehicle for learning.

In order for the Philadelphia Athenaeum to become a place where the people learning become the third element of involvement and circulation there needs to be a program that is flexible yet defining. The proposed idea is to construct three types of areas within the program (one totally private for employees, one semi private for members and guest researchers, and one public for visitors and tourists.) that vary based on the involvement of the people who would move through. The program would start as a fluid and lightly defined space, continue into enclosed areas for members, artifacts on display and digital exhibits before moving all the way back to ground itself in a rigid storage area for traditional artifacts and library practices. It also will showcase qualities of rigidity and fluidity colliding through elements such as light, green space, material and digital media.

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