CHLOE CHENG

In this project, the client is seeking a community for communication and education of black ballet and would like to center black ballet in visitors’ experience within this library of ballet, but the neighbors around the area are mostly working-class and minority races who barely have interest in ballet nor black ballet. Meanwhile, the library functions as a service center for the neighborhood which is fairly important as well. To achieve the goal, the library needs to create a highly engaged environment that would attract and invite visitors to get into black ballet and preserve some library functions at the same time.

The Bazaar is a great example of a highly engaged space. A bazaar has the features of free circulation, free visual accessibility, people can communicate casually with others by standing in the way, the items can be directly touched for interaction… The concept of Ballet Bazaar is trying to bring those qualities of a bazaar and transfer them into the spatial quality of the exhibition galleries, dance studios, and the rest of the programs inside the library. Meanwhile, there is also a real outdoor bazaar functioning as a hint outside to attract people into the space.