The NOOK
Client: Pasco County Library
Location: Wesley Chapel, FL - USA
Service: Community Engagement, Design, Fabrication, Installation
Date Installed: 6/2026
The NOOK is an interactive installation created for the new Wesley Chapel Library in Wesley Chapel, FL. Developed as a series of six flowing forms inspired by the motion of turning pages in a book, the installation invites visitors off the pathway and into the adjacent event lawn. Each exploratory gesture creates opportunities to relax, gather, play, read, write, and engage with the surrounding landscape and outdoor activities.
The work was shaped through a series of community engagement workshops in which Wesley Chapel residents expressed a desire for a place where people could take a book outdoors and reconnect with the natural environment while fostering social connection and organic communal play. In response, the NOOK was conceived as both a destination and outdoor infrastructure that supports the library’s programming while creating an informal setting for discovery, gathering, and connection.
The NOOK’s flowing form is composed of custom linear aluminum tube extrusions whose size and position were established through parametric modeling techniques, creating the delicate appearance of a singular, continuous form. Each tube is hollow and contains an outdoor LED lighting component, encapsulated within a polycarbonate lens embedded with dichroic film. The forms were designed to appear as though the ground is peeling upward, revealing a rainbow-like underbelly. During the day, the artwork functions as a seating element, while at night, the NOOK illuminates the event lawn with cascading colors. Throughout the day and night, the dichroic surfaces reflect and refract shifting colors as the angle of light changes, creating an interactive experience that invites visitors to play with the reflections and lighting through their movement on and around the work.
The work utilizes its open-ended form to create endless ways in which visitors can sit, lay, climb, and interact with the work. All levels of seating can be accessed from the pathway or the event lawn space, giving visitors the choice for a quiet space for reading a book adjacent to the nature preserve, or engaging in the larger event space where more lively activities can take place. The NOOK’s orientation on the site provides opportunities for programs inside the library to be brought outdoors. These open-ended spaces encapsulate areas designated for performances, lectures, and literary circles - supplying additional locations for the neighborhood to access these resources. Like an open book waiting to be read, NOOK invites people to step in, take part, and shape the space in their own ways, adding new stories with every encounter.
