Prague National Library

 "RESEARCH BACKGROUND <br />This project was completed for an international architecture competition for Prague National Library, a 50,000 sq m project. The design proposed to 'bury' the archive under the uplifted corner of Letna Plain in Prague with the underlying intention that an archive has the qualities of 'buried treasures' or hidden secrets. <br /><br />RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION<br />This project by Richard Blythe (Terroir) unites three research questions that are critical to the practice of contemporary architecture. First, it sheds light on contemporary design practice in which design is understood as a process of joint authorship. In the case of this project, the authors were located in geographically separate places and the design conversation was captured as an edited email chain. <br />The second question arose from the email chain and the discovery that one of the key design moves was to begin by establishing the contextual ground of the project, rather than simply designing an object. The building design can then be framed with judicious contextual references. <br />Finally, the project attempts to address the problem of creating contextual or culturally grounded design in contemporary cosmopolitan conditions. It proposes that each project may develop a unique contextual constellation, allowing for familial propositions that are at once locally grounded and universal. The familial concept allows for contextual grounding and new insertions to coexist, resulting in objects that are radically new, yet also carry an expected familiarity.<br /><br />RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE <br />This creative work was one of 16 entries short-listed from 354 international entries. The competition jury included Zaha Hadid and the project was published in journal articles, books and theses.&quot