Escaping the Cave

This project was a redesign for Wellington’s Central Library. The driving force of this project was narrative architecture, the narrative employed was of Plato’s Cave. Plato theorised of people trapped in a cave, perceiving very little of the world around them. One escapes and upon realising how little they had previously understood returns and tries to convince the others who reject this and decide he must have gone mad. It serves as a tale of humanities rejection of knowledge. This design took elements of this in a range of forms, both metaphorical and literal. Literally, the exterior form resembles that of a cave and the walls are arranged so as to create the aesthetic of having been carved out. Metaphorically, the centre of the form has a light well going from the top floor to the basement, where the archives are held. This is representative of the fire from which our understanding emanates.