IIT Architecture Students Awarded AIA Chicago's Award in Architecture

Il Hwan Kim and Natalia Struk (B.ARCH '17) have been awarded 3rd prize for their proposal, Stepped Library for the AIA Chicago Award in Architecture Student Competition.

Both students will receive a cash award and will be invited to attend AIA Chicago’s Annual Meeting and Holiday Party at the Chicago Cultural Center, where they will be recognized in a brief awards ceremony. 

As outlined in their submission, the Stepped Library celebrates books in their physicality, and the library distinguishes the relationship between an individual and the book. Kim and Struk  propose "an unpredictable and infinite experience of knowledge discovery, made possible by forming an open landscape within the library."

According to Kim and Struk, the terrain of books provides a freedom to wonder. The visitor may access all points of the space via innumerable paths, offering her an ever-changing experience.

Features of the project include The Reading Room, described by Kim and Struk as a journey from an intimate, narrow meeting point at the bottom, to a distanced, tranquil level at the top.

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