Location - Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

The Scottsdale Civic Center Library Teen Center opened to enthusiastic teens in February of 2006. It is the result of a direct interactive public process with the teen community of Scottsdale, a historically overlooked segment of library patrons. Participants for instance, were asked to imagine the finished space, to list their favorite qualities of their respective imagined spaces and to photograph their favorite spaces. Following the structural lines of the existing building the overarching concept to unify the new teen space, “KNOWASIS”, became a segmented sky, informed by the various images brought back by the teens. Respectful of the original 1968 building by local legend Benny Gonzalez, the installation transformed the existing space into an appealing hangout for teens, while functionally solving the issues of lighting and acoustics.