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UBC Theses and Dissertations

A branch public library addition to the Kingsgate Mall Vancouver, B.C. Gilliard, Jeffrey Ryan

Abstract

The ubiquitous presence of advertising has become a powerful force shaping everyday life. Advertising strives for your attention. In acting as a primer for consumption by confusing want and need, it motivates both specific desires while stimulating a more general or abstract Desire. When shopping, the circular nature of advertising is clearly demonstrated in browsing: a situation where one's attention is simultaneously available and searching, in an attemept to find the 'lost' object that may finally satisfy your desire, all the while being further presented with advertisements that further that desire. The project is an addition to the Kingsgate Mall, an introverted shopping mall in the Mount Pleasant area built in the early 1970s, that replaces a small branch library currently located within the mall. It is located at the prominent intersection of Broadway Street and Kingsway Street and redevelops a parking lot adjacent to the main western entrance. The library addition attempts to divert the shopper's attention to the pleasures of reading and learning by advertising, at a number of scales, the specific encounter with the library, its different reading rooms, and the free access to information within, all guided by the principle of 'making public' proper to publicity. To this aim, the ground floor of the addition attempts to link a number of paths that cross the site at different elevations to cross in a central courtyard. The project attempts to 'bend' the commercial identity of Broadway Street into the courtyard and mall to reduce the negative urban impact the mall currently has, and increase the flow of pedestrian traffic through the space. The courtyard organizes both the urban public space proper to a civic institution and the internal layout of the library, allowing the occupant to continuously view other parts of the library and the ground, to become a place where the adjacent attractions of the mall and the library can mutually assist each other in their patronage.

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