Architecture Projects
Stowell Architects 1970-2010
350 projects by partners and associates
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SCOD Architecture Projects 1990-2020
120 projects by partners and associates
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Augusta Public Library
[ futurist manifesto written in 1998 by Drogo Empedocles ]
Augusta Georgia was once a harsh city of industrial decay, struggling to redefine itself. Now it maintains a verdant stability under the reign of Holistic Education. Now only ignorance is strange.
When the Augusta Library was first built, times were changing. Technology was evolving faster than biological evolution. The masses were given a new way to explore urban existence. The revolution continues led by democratic digital social media platforms. In our modern world of empathy, what was once commercial is now honest and true. The masses increase in proportion to their access to educational opiates. Libraries are mostly digital now, with local publications and book archives.
Plastic decadence of consumerism has been replaced by free knowledge. Public mural and graffiti contests are legally exhibited on the walls of the Library by city grants.
The people have shed their lumpy antiquated skepticism, from exposure to waves of a brave new world of interconnected communication networks. Our consciousness is a poly-chromatic spectrum where our popular dreams blend together, because they are not kept distinctly separate.
We were a people so full of substances, yet devoid of substance. Born from a world of consumed waste and hoarded materialism, our egos lacked information and empathetic communication. We were artificially produced and protected like babies by corporations, insulated to the natural world.
Production is not enough anymore, we seek harmony and beauty with knowledge. Human neo-cortical activity transcends our basic subconscious primal appetites. Trees are worshiped to be protected as living beings, to which me make sacrifices of profit. The custodians of wooden houses have scars from their blood sacrifices. Owning paper is the same as owning animal skins.
Integrated nationalities, races, and genders move through an orchestrated city, transported by automated conveyor networks. The city is saturated with chirping birds and melodic musical tones. Musician technicians are hired for ambiance, and service and traffic functionality. The more complex the junction, the more layered the sounds with higher tempo frequencies. Courthouses play Wagner, fast-food plays Mozart, and churches have ambient goth pop.
I pass over main street, and between the sweet gum trees linking the sidewalk. Drawn by the music of the secondary park, I descend the depressed brick steps into the courtyard. While children play games around plantings, an artist meanders through park levels. Many people enjoy shelter under the double story ceiling of the giant colonnade. Independently enclosed pavilions harbor the latest news screens (with optional audio), comforted by cushioned sofas.
I purchased a coffee, a cookie, and a loaf of bread (all organic of course). Look at the news pad and ebook in my bag. My mind wanders towards the vaulted walkway and to the sleek tower gate. Brightly lit, i can see into the vestibule gallery. A collection of paintings are displayed here; some extreme, some conservative, and some ambiguous. The heavy wall of the main Library building is beyond. It is made from recycled brick from old department stores that previously dominated the block. The rustic wall slides along the back wall of the public auditorium, and multi-purpose areas, opening at special locations as the primary library gate. Through the second gates is the main desk and vertical circulation and book map screen (touch sensitive). All are scanned for security.
We are children of the Sun, as light gives all. We have positive awareness in this new age. Darkness is respected as is sleep, for balanced regulation.
The gods created us for their amusement, and we forgot them. We created machines for our desires, and we were almost displaced and forgotten too. Decay is spawned from an inability to evolve. In order to solve problems rational organic relations are needed. Responsive to more than technology, we design for the future. We illuminate visions of utopia now. Technology is neutral, respected as a tool.
* END 2010 Transmission *
SCOD Blog Post about Augusta Library
(note: this is an architectural manifesto for a theoretical project, which was part of an inter-collegiate event to project into the future, and therefore was not built and remains fictional. There are designs not included here: Group sketches, model photos, Datacad composite versions)
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