Dror for National Library of Israel

The eye is the window to our mind
 

As part of its renewal process, the National Library of Israel launched a design competition to create an expanded facility for the 21st century. The institution is home to an incredible archive of more than five million books, in addition to numerous rare manuscripts and artifacts. I began thinking about the relationship between these texts and the human eye, the primary tool used to process words. I wanted to create a building that symbolized this internalization—a gradually increasing aggregation of knowledge.

The most literal, geometric representation of this relationship is a square pyramid. Rotated so it rests on a triangular face, the shape informed the edifice of our proposed library. The building begins with a single stone, which grows into a series of steadily taller square arches that vary in thickness, giving a subtle nod to the books inside.

Layers of information are also referenced in the logic of the building: its facade extends underground in the same sloped shape, symbolizing rising in education and digging down into knowledge, respectively. Together, the library’s vertical and horizontal movements encapsulate the depth and elevation acquired through reading in physical form.

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