PETER BLAKE on Johansen’s architecture of the Goddard Library
“... looks like a giant machine and is, in effect, a manifesto. In it Johansen places himself firmly on the side of letting the unpredictable happen, without preconceptions of order. The core of the Goddard Library is an elevated box in which books are stacked. The perimeter, however, is a seemingly random collection of shapes and angles... that make the contemporary Civic Hall of Boston look positively Miesian.”
Johansen’s increasing determination to avoid rigid functionalism can be seen in his design of the Goddard Library at Clark University.
“...I have, on occasion, spoken of the Goddard Library not as a building, but rather as an assemblage of components plugged into an armature as in electronic devices.
This is a building not of the passing mechanical age, but of the electronic age. This library is not a device of automation (as libraries of the future may be). Still, its elevations are like the rear side of a Xerox copier with the components and their connections rigged on a structural chassis and simply exposed.” - John M Johansen
