We Library: An Architectural Design Integrating Movement, Light, and Sound in the Reading Experience
Mobile Library on Miami Beach
On the sands of Miami Beach, where the horizon usually blends water and sky, artist Eiz Devlin presented an unconventional architectural experience. She added something unexpected to the general scenery: a moving library known as “We Library.”
A Design that Combines Movement and Culture
The library serves as a central artwork in Miami Arts Week 2025, designed to be more than just an art display. It does not invite visitors to consume quickly; rather, it encourages them to pause, reflect, read, and share time with others. In this sense, the space transforms into a cognitive sanctuary, harmoniously integrating architecture, art, and culture.
The Heart of the Library: The Rotating Bookshelf
At the center stands a triangular bookshelf, six meters high, long and wide, yet gently moving. The structure stretches 15 meters and holds around 2,500 books, arranged in a way that makes them part of a living system rather than static elements.
The most notable feature of this shelf is its cyclical motion; it rotates around its axis once every ten minutes, at a slow, almost imperceptible pace. This gradual movement creates a sense of calm and fluidity, as if the architecture itself is breathing.
A New Sensory Experience
By combining slow movement with books and music, the work offers a unique sensory experience. Visitors do not merely pass through the space, they are encouraged to engage, whether by reading, observing, or interacting with the architectural environment. This concept raises an important question about the role of architecture in enhancing cultural and social reflection, showing how public spaces can transform into catalysts for knowledge and human experience.
Architecture Reflected on Water
A shallow pool surrounds the bookshelf, acting as a mirror that reflects the entire structure and amplifies its visual presence, while softening the boundaries between the building and its natural environment. In this context, elements of steel, marine plywood, water, mirrors, and LED lighting come together to create a reflective landscape. This combination makes the space feel more fluid; books and words are not displayed forcefully, but gently flow along with the movement of light and water.
Light and Words: A Moving Language
A ten-meter LED strip runs along the bookshelf’s column, transforming words into a moving light experience. Here, language moves with a rhythm resembling tides, like the turning of pages, rather than being static or fragmented as in digital notifications. This design connects writing, light, and motion in a new sensory way, allowing readers to perceive the relationship between time, space, and language.
Renewed Collective Reading
Surrounding the library is a large circular reading table accommodating hundreds of people, divided into two concentric circles. The outer circle remains stationary, while the inner circle rotates with the moving bookshelf. This precise architectural choice transforms the act of individual reading into a dynamic collective experience. With each slow rotation, readers encounter a new passage, a new book, or a new person across from them, creating a sense of shared time and quiet connection, without the need for instructions or visual prompts.
Architecture as a Social and Cultural Medium
In this way, “We Library” becomes more than just a reading space; it is simultaneously a sensory, cultural, and social experience. It presents architecture as a medium for human connection, demonstrating how thoughtful design can reshape simple daily behaviors, like reading, into a richly interactive experience, heightening awareness of both place and others.
Sound as an Architectural and Experimental Element
Sound enhances the “We Library” experience, deepening the visitor’s sensory impact. Devlin presents a 250-second audio piece, in which she reads aloud, integrated with subtle music, filling the space with a multi-layered sound field that blends voices, memories, and diverse literary excerpts. This sound environment is neither a traditional performance nor mere background noise; it exists in between, creating a space that blurs the boundaries between private reading and public ritual.
The Library as an Open Stage for Collective Experience
At the same time, “We Library” functions as a public library, a luminous sculpture, and a space for collective reading. The design goes beyond form, integrating movement, sound, and light to offer a comprehensive visitor experience, where reading becomes both a social and sensory activity.
Extending Devlin’s Artistic Research
This project continues Devlin’s exploration of libraries as kinetic sculptures. Earlier in 2025, she presented “Light Library” at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, which attracted daily collective readings for nearly 200,000 visitors. In Miami, this research expands to include the open beach space, surpassing the limits of conventional buildings, and reflecting the civic and artistic ambitions of Faena Arts Week.
Cultural Sustainability After the Exhibition
Eiz Devlin places as much importance on the afterlife of the project as she does on its form. When Miami Arts Week concludes, all 2,500 books, provided through a partnership with Penguin Random House, will be donated to public libraries, schools, and community organizations across Miami. This action extends the cultural and artistic impact to the community, going beyond the beach and the temporary event.
Accompanying Works: Multi-Layered Experiences
The “We Library” experience is completed through two additional commissions that expand reflection and interaction:
- The Reading Room inside Faena Cathedral: Shaped as a 14-meter-long bench integrated with a bookshelf and LED screen, built using phrases contributed by hotel staff, including housekeeping, gardeners, security, restaurant, maintenance teams, and long-term collaborators. This integration of community and architecture makes the work interactive and alive.
- Tracing Time: An exhibition of drawings and paintings on glass, paper, and screens, revealing Devlin’s creative process through layers, repetition, and drawing marks, contributing to her ongoing research.
Architecture as a Host for Language and Participation
Together, these works form a comprehensive tableau of Devlin’s multidisciplinary practice. “We Library” is not merely an installation to observe; it is an architectural experience that redefines reading, reminding us that language gains its greatest power when shared, slowed, and collectively carried. This highlights architecture not only as a physical space but as a cultural and social medium, fostering collective engagement and enhancing interaction between people, language, and art.
✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight
While “We Library” provides an innovative sensory experience through the integration of movement, light, sound, and collective reading, it also raises questions regarding the architectural and functional effectiveness of temporary public spaces. For example, although the rotating bookshelf creates visual and sensory dynamism, its slow speed and large size may limit visitors’ ability to interact with it practically or repeatedly over time. Similarly, the heavy reliance on technical elements such as lighting and audio media adds a layer of complexity and ongoing maintenance, posing challenges for temporary architecture that must remain easily operable and cost-effective.
From an urban planning perspective, the project highlights the potential of architecture to enhance cultural experience, yet it remains limited in its capacity to sustainably transform community behavior. This experience can inform the design of future public spaces, but it may have greater impact if coupled with greater flexibility, integration with the immediate environment, and attention to how participation continues after events conclude.
In summary, “We Library” offers important insights into integrating movement and interaction in public architecture, while also raising questions about the limits of temporary architecture, maintenance costs, and the ability to achieve long-term impact on users and communities. This analytical approach can help architects and designers draw lessons on balancing artistic innovation and functional utility in public projects.
