The Peckham Library is held up by many supportive elements. Many of which are also decorative. The building is an upside down L-shaped structure. The top two reading floors cantilever far out over the plaza. The cantilever is “supported by seven one-foot diameter angled concrete-filled steel piloti.” The columns are skinny and twig like and appear ready to snap. The reading space rises 40 feet off of the ground.
The library is also held up by an internal skeleton. This is really visible from the stairway you take up to the reading area. All of the materials and structures are left exposed. We spied concrete walls and columns, and a steel framework which support the stairs and ceiling.
Three plywood-clad reading blobs tower over the reading space. They sit on heavy, angled, concrete columns which mimic the angled supports on the exterior. The blobs burst through the high ceiling with light spilling around it from skylights. These seemingly amorphous shapes were carefully designed with boat engineering as an influence. Our very own Paolo created the technical drawings for them! Small world.
Some of the supportive structural elements also serve a dual purpose. The cantilever shades the glass facade; keeping the building cool and ultimately reducing energy needs. The concrete frame also provides thermal mass which keeps the building well insulated.
From the exterior, the windows and skylights appear randomly placed. But once inside the reading space, you can see the natural lighting was really calculated. Light falls into the space from around the pods and around the perimeter of the dropped ceiling. What a novelty to read and work by natural light! 
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