HCU Moody Library Renovation
The objective of this renovation is to recognize the challenges libraries face and create an environment that will facilitate, support and adapt with these ever-changing needs. As education and research methodologies move away from the traditional typologies of the library, new service paradigms must emerge to capture the needs of the students and the university. The value of a library is no longer based on its books and collections, but instead on its capacity to bend and flex with evolving institutional priorities. By re-imagining the relationships of information, technology and humanity, libraries can evolve within the constant cultural, social and economic changes faced in higher education.
Location
Houston, Texas
Design Team
Joe Rivers, Melissa Cross, Rafia Imran, Esmer Leija, and Kevin Barden
Typology
Commercial
Date
2022
Process
Explore
Gulf Coast Beach House
Rockport, Texas
Residential
Located in a community along the Gulf Coast, this new residence creates a place of rest and relaxation through offering expansive views and ample room for indoor and outdoor living and entertaining.
Advice Compilation
All
Culture and Community
Over the course of four seasons and twenty-eight episodes, Joe and Kevin have sat down with a diverse group of people from nearly every artistic arena; performers, artists, designers, builders, and beyond. A goal of the podcast from the outset has been to illuminate connections between architecture and other creative pursuits; to form bonds with others over process, philosophy, approach; to learn about ourselves by getting to know each other. So we hope that if you are creative, you find some inspiration in the advice that follows.
Ethos
Kevin Barden and Joe Rivers
Writing
In an essay entitled The Hedgehog and the Fox, Isaiah Berlin quotes the Greek poet Archilochus, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing” (Berlin 7). The essay was written as a commentary on Leo Tolstoy’s view of history, however, the text can offer an understanding for how one might practice architecture as well. For us, this understanding reveals itself in perceiving the environment as a fox and believing in it as a hedgehog.