The Citizen's Hyperbook Market and Theatre

Veronia Abelshehid’s final-year project, The Citizen’s Hyperbook Market and Theatre, reimagines the relationship between literature, architecture, and public engagement by creating a cultural nexus for community interaction and creative expression. Sited within the courtyard of the Levita House in King’s Cross, London, the project emerges as both a critique and a response to the nearby King’s Library Tower at the British Library, challenging hierarchical models of knowledge and proposing instead an open framework where citizens become co-authors of literary culture.

The scheme comprises three interconnected buildings, a market, a theatre, and a communal hub, linked by a symbolic bridge and an underground passage. Together, they form a spatial and narrative journey through the lifecycle of literature: from birth to death to rebirth. More than a place to access books, the project transforms literature into a participatory experience, inviting the public to question, remake, and be transformed by it.