The Center for the Arts Reading Room is a portable lounge and reading room designed for the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.

A competition was held within the architecture II studio and my group’s concept was selected as the winning design. The Reading Room is comprised of four moveable walls, each with a unique set of circular cutouts, as well as a number of circular plugins that serve as furniture.

The walls are white and monolithic, much like the rest of the exhibition space in the gallery. Inside the cutouts, however, are a wide variety of fun and playful textiles which invite visitors to touch, play, and explore - an invitation that is normally absent from gallery spaces. The walls can be reconfigured to suit varying functions and can accommodate everything ranging from small, intimate discussion to large workshops and artist talks. The Reading Room looks to encourage gallery visitors to interact with the exhibitions in a ways and to take a moment to pause, rest, and reflect on the work around them.