The team responsible for building Rintala Eggertsson’s ‘Ark’ reading tower have arrived at the V&A. Led by Dagur Eggertsson (one of the partners in the practice, alongside Sami Rintala), the team consists of a wonderful mix of architecture students and previous collaborators.
Progress has been pretty quick in the last few days, and they have already started construction on the third floor of the tower. Eventually, this uppermost level will allow visitors to peer out, surrounded by shelves of books, and look into the reading room of the National Art Library.
Once the timber framework has been completed, the next stage will be the installation of the book tower’s shelves – which will dominate the exterior facade of the building. Of course, the final act will be the ceremonial and rather laborious task of stocking the reading tower with the approximately 6,000 secondhand, paperback books which have been kindly donated by Booth Books and Dominic Winter Book Auctions.