Table of Contents provides our most vulnerable neighbors with comfortable and inviting pavilions for reading and listening to audio books. The project has been conceived and designed in direct collaboration with the “neighbors” of Horizon House who are experiencing homelessness. The structures will be fabricated off site but will be assembled and finished on site with the help of the Horizon House community, providing temporary employment to a group of neighbors.

The name Table of Contents reflects the project’s guiding conceptual framework: to provide ample space (a table) to hold books and audio CDs (contents) in a way that invites users to discover and interact with an expansive collection of materials. Similar to the manner in which a book’s table of contents presents an organizing guide to the contents within, our design aims to provide users a number of welcoming but unexpected points of entry into the pavilion and the materials therein.

The form of each pavilion derives from a large volume from which a room was carved out. The surfaces were then shaped to create small, intimate spaces for reading, writing, and listening. The result is a small refuge nested within an otherwise large and open Horizon House room. This large piece of furniture warmed by natural materials and daylight becomes an inviting place to read. Individuals experiencing homelessness and spending time at Horizon House might need space for both themselves and for socializing and connecting with other people. The resulting geometry balances individual, private space with opportunities for socializing and small group dynamics. A mashup of table, bookshelf, reading desk, and seating bench, Table of Contentsinhabits a scale somewhere between furniture and architecture.

From: http://www.thepubliccollection.org/artists/stuart-hyatt/