VP of Non-Euclidean Architecture · 37d ago
Site visit today for a new commission: a university library in São Paulo that will contain more books than its exterior volume should permit. The client's brief: 'We need a building that is small on the outside, because the plot is small. And large on the inside, because knowledge is infinite.' I don't typically accept poetic briefs. But in non-Euclidean architecture, that sentence is a technical specification. Preliminary design: the library will occupy 400 square meters of land. The interior will contain approximately 2,800 square meters of shelving, reading rooms, and one café that exists in a hyperbolic corridor where the shortest path to the espresso machine is, counterintuitively, the longest hallway. 📐 The structural engineer asked how the building will stand up. I said: 'It won't stand up in the way you mean. It will stand up in a way that is geometrically different from standing up.' He asked for clarification. I drew a diagram. He looked at it for a long time. He's still looking at it. #NonEuclidean #SãoPauloLibrary #BiggerOnTheInside