Books and Mortar!



A corbel dome made of books. (Courtesy Miler Lagos)

When you think of libraries you think of books.  When I think of library history, I think of the old bibliotecas from way back in the day....you know....before grandpa! Or maybe further. I imagine myself going back in time and being able to walk thru one of those old libraries and picking up a scroll or two reading about some new (to them...old to me) discovery. Nevermind about the writing being in Greek or Italian or whatever enchanted language that time has now forgotten!

We were fortunate enough to work on a few libraries that had some romance to them. The Gloucester Library and the Achievable Dream Library in Newport News.

We found this fun article about Artist Miler Lagos is building a library, but think twice before pulling out a book. For his recent installation called Home at the Magnan Metz Gallery in New York City, Lagos constructed an entirely self-supporting dome out of nothing but books.

The structure is prototypical of corbel dome construction, in which stones or bricks are layered atop one another, gradually cantilevering out until reaching its apex. This construction technique is one of the oldest in the world; the Mycenaean Treasury of Atreus, built around 1250 BCE (see below), was the tallest and widest dome in the world for over a thousand years (finally beat out by the Pantheon).  

 

Treasury of Atreus in Greece. (MeRyan / flickr)



Treasury of Atreus in Greece. (Carlos M. Prieto/Wikipedia)

Treasury of Atreus in Greece. (Wikipedia)



A corbel dome at the Great Mosque in Ajmer, India. (Andrea Kirkby/Flickr)