Nothing

“Nothing” primarily aims to bring a new dynamism to its site, and to interrupt the formal order of the city.
The initial study started with the idea of the “unknown”, or the “in-between.” It set out to discover the “undefined” domain between open and closed, light and dark, and real and unreal.
The concept developed as a continuous impulse throughout the design, and it has manifested as a series of layers/ skins / mediums, which lead to a completely indefinable space. The unknown can be understood as a metaphor for the city life. The ambiguity of city and the others, also known as the “public,” becomes the question. 
What is public and what is private? 
How can a public institution / library address current programmatic principles of a public library with respect to the formal or informal fabric of Ottawa’s orthodox grid?
The Gateway Studio program requirements have been re-purposed to challenge the ways in which occupants and visitors occupy space, particularly through the illusion of order. As a result, they can reinvent themselves and the ways in which they perceive space. 
The multi-functional polyvalent wall on Slater St attempts to alter the experience of waiting for the bus.
The walls do not act as clear separations between the inside and outside. Instead, they serve as temporary boundaries of the in-between, or the buffer between city and the library’s interior.
What is going to happen as one enters the building?
Fragments of narratives are simultaneously presented to the visitor as they enter, ascend, and descend through the building. All events and fragments are connected visually, or with a direct physical connection to the unknown space / ABS space.
“Nothing” is the point of view. The observer can be the vanishing point in a reverse perspective. The visual connection of space and fragmented stories was inspired by the adjacency program created in response to the Gateway Studio program requirements. 
The fragmented narratives are held together by a visual connection with the unknown central space. In order to express the potential of the unknown, a temporary experimental farm is proposed. 
As if the building is not there……..