The question
How do you make one large room feel like several small ones?
In this library the shelves stand in a ring instead of along the walls. The books become the partition, and every opening in the ring becomes a threshold between a busier outside and a quieter centre.
A lower ceiling
Pendant lights hung at one height give the eye a plane to rest on beneath the steel roof. Plants along the tops of the shelves soften the ring without closing it.
What we kept
Furniture can divide a room better than walls can. The library is not our work; we keep it as a reference.