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2024 GFD 🏆 Awards

Gold Winner | Folger Skakespeare Libary | Studio Joseph

Founders Henry Clay Folger and his wife, Emily Jordan Folger, established The Folger Shakespeare Library (FSL) in 1932 as a gift to the American people.  It has the world’s largest collection of printed works by William Shakespeare. Over the years, the Library expanded its holdings, becoming a world-class research center, yet its impact was limited by space and lack of meaningful public engagement with the collections.

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Gold 🏆 Winner
Global Future Design Awards 2024

Folger Skakespeare Libary
Exhibition Interior Design (Built)

Firm
Studio Joseph

Architect/Designer
Wendy Joseph

Design Team
Wendy Evans Joseph, Principal Monica Coghlan, Director of Design Ruben Gomez, Designer Wonwoo Park, Designer Alexandra Adamski, Designer Brandon Studer, Graphic Design Anthony Roy , Graphic Design

Location
201 E Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003

Country
United States

Photographer/Copyright
©Studio Joseph

Website
N/A

Instagram
N/A

An extensive architectural expansion created a new public entry and two large galleries for community learning. The North Gallery centers on Shakespeare, the man, his stories, times, and legacy. It includes the First Folios, surrounded by a playful armature of illustrations, artifacts, and numerous interactive media or hands-on experiences. The South Gallery houses an education area, a temporary display space, and “Out of the Vault,” a dense display of collections.

This project is built on the emerging proposition that today’s libraries are an effective forum for learning as part of social bonding in public. The FSL takes Shakespeare off his pedestal and brings his works to everyone in a way that meets them where they are. The community is not just invited, but warmly welcomed. There is no “Shakespeare test”, rather questions, insights, gentle provocations —adapt the sacred, embrace the profane, reframe Shakespeare worship and relish in the silly, mundane, and irreverent.

North Gallery

A high conservation case for the Library’s 82 first folios is at its physical and spiritual epicenter of the gallery. Visitors use interactive media, diving deeply into content to find exciting facts that illuminate the unique quality of each folio’s 400-year history. Who owned the folio? What marks did they leave? Which were owned by women? The case is a tour-de-force of technical design embracing multiple layers of conservation and security, including— a VESDA system, humidity/temperature control, Oddy material testing, dedicated supply and return air, ambient and programmed lighting that is in sync with the media interactive. Camouflaged access and laminated glass contribute to high-level security.

The entire gallery is “papered” in bold graphics. Printed on 8.5×11,Tyvek, the leaves create an audaciously textured environment that holds the narrative while unifying diverse stories. This exciting, intense, visual, and spatial armature met the challenge of drawing the visitor into the fascinating but often obscure realm of historical books.

There are a series of physio-digital experiences that bring other parts of Shakespearian times forward. “Printing with Light” allows visitors to assemble phrases using facsimile blocks and see how they would print. It’s fun and reminds us that all texts were upside down and backward. “Shake up your Shakespeare” is a verbal battle of quotes that visitors can bring up to explore how Shakespearean language was at once playful and targeted. Although the vocabulary might feel antique, the ideas continue to resonate today.

South Gallery

Casework for changing exhibits allows curators a flexible format to bring forward diverse themes and ideas over time. The theatrical display combines graphics, quotes, and colorful, sheer curtains to amplify a visitor’s journey.