This thesis is an investigation in architecture’s ability to produce non-textual, public legibility . In an interview with Peter Eisenman entitled “I am interested in a project of engaged autonomy,” Sarah Whiting states that “legibility is another word for engaging the public.” In this interview, she discusses the possibility of an architecture that has non-textual legibility that is both autonomous from its context and engaging for the public. The competition for a new public library in Varna, Bulgaria, the selected project for this thesis, is characterized by a series of paradoxical conditions.