Anemic Void of Human Recognition

Anemic Void of Human Recognition

Rematerialized humanity extended onto the river

Perez, Luis

Washington, DC, USA

005-LF-S042

2014

The Catholic University of America

Student

Minimal, light, technological, without wires, without paper: the library of the future. Ecological, almost utopian in its conception, these libraries are part of a science fiction future that can sometimes come across as anemic, void of that which we recognize as human in our physical surroundings. The library, taken for granted in our technological age, is in many ways the best representative of what our civilization is capable of. Yet, the library soothes a different urge than the one that promises grandeur in the physical world.

When our generation grows out of its vertigos of viral knowledge and a nausea begins to creep around the fluorescent glow of the machines that shamelessly capture our desire with small dosages of instant gratification, who will provide the calm, that same calm and silence that drives writers to pour their whole self into the words they write, who if not the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. As such, it should reflect it in full architectural majesty and restrain, like the legacy of the city which gave birth to independence and liberty in a new continent.

After all, what is a library, if not a city of brotherly love?

46192111