Houses for Books Part 1 Project 2015 Monika Marinova Manchester School of Architecture Manchester | UK Buildings embody history. In any place history is represented through buildings. Researching the generative contexts of Manchester’s city centre and its inhabitants – people and urban artefacts - revealed patterns and affordances of use, disuse, movement, perception. The coexistence of which creates tensions not by way of simply their presence but by hinting to what is already absent or about to start existing. In an intricate way these states of existence are referencing each other beyond the constraints of time frames. The project makes an attempt to reconciliate these by proposing a place within the city that references the intrinsic characteristics that are unique for the urban realm and at the same time reintroduce them in a new and exciting way. The main tool for this being the aspiration of the building to let itself to use and be defined by the expressive gestures it makes to people.Books are analogues of cities: they capture memories, tell stories. The making of a book is the ritual of preserving history. The reading of a book is the act of celebrating it. Both the building’s entity and purpose are manifested through and driven by books through both direct and conceptual analogues. Monika Marinova Tutor(s) Stephen Connah Ronan Connelly