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SHUNK KENDER ARCHIVE

Sofia
Burlo

Photographers Harry Shunk and János (Jean) Kender
took some of the most iconic photographs of American
and European mid-20th century art, producing tens of
thousands of images. Some are housed in New York in the
Shunk Kender Archive. To house the New York archive,
a building built for Con Edison in New York City’s East
Village is itself converted into a piece of art.
Exploring the concepts of Collecting and Dispersing,
every level in this building is connected by the design’s
primary element, a polygonal system that moves through
and between the floors like growing cells. This system
serves as a display background for photographs and arti-
facts and provides seating and table surfaces for reading
rooms. An additional orthogonal storage system is created
with metallic scaffolding. The scaffolding also appears
throughout the space, working as a structural support
and providing a grid-like rational organization as a coun-
terpoint to the polygonal structures.
The design accommodates various interconnected pro-
grams that are dispersed through all of the four levels of
the space: auditoriums, reading rooms, exhibition spaces,
book and artifact storage, and office space.

Degree: University of Buenos Aires, B Arch.
sofiburlo@gmail.com

Faculty: Anne Nixon and Kristina Kesler

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