Lewis Library, Princeton University

This science library is a homage by the architect to the lines and curves he sees in everyday life. A curtain of aluminium-framed windows falls from the curved steel roofline, and the sheer glass walls of two rising wings play with the usual boundary between inside and outside.

From the highest level of the main library, alternating glimpses of colour appear at every window, in shades of green, purple and orange. As the light changes through the day, shadows from the skylight mullions fall across the coloured walls, and the reading rooms in the tower face north to receive soft, indirect light.