Redefining the library
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about redefining the library
Project • By Schmidt Hammer Lassen architects • Libraries
University of Aberdeen New Library
On September 24th 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain marks the official opening of the University of Aberdeen New Library in Scotland. The building, won in an architectural competition in 2005 by schmidt hammer lassen architects, is replacing the University’s former library from 1965 – the Queen Mother Library.
The 15,500 m² new library, which provides a 21st century learning and research environment for students, university staff, visitors and the public, is a positive example of how architecture can make a difference. Since the building was put into service in September 2011, the statistics have shown a significant increase in the use of the library, and more than 700,000 visitors have entered the building this first... More
Project • By Atelier Li Xiaodong • Libraries
Liyuan Library-
This project is modest addition to the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing, just under a two hours drive from busy Beijing urban life.
On the one hand it forms a modern programmatic complement to the village by adding a small library and reading space within a setting of quiet contemplation. On the other hand we wanted to use architecture to enhance the appreciation of the natural landscaping qualities.
So instead of adding a new building inside the village center, we chose this particular site in the nearby mountains, a pleasant five minute walk from the village center. In doing so we could provide a setting of clear thoughts when one consciously takes the effort to head for the reading room.
Because of the overwh... More
Project • By Grant Associates • Libraries
The Hive Worcester Library Landscape
The Hive is Europe’s first joint university and public library – a unique academic, educational and learning centre for the City of Worcester and its University. The ‘BREEAM Outstanding’ project was designed by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios with a distinctive and sustainable landscape design by Grant Associates.
Grant Associates’ landscape design brief was to create a high quality landscape environment that would become a distinctive and exciting visitor attraction - a place which would capture a sense of history and place whilst reflecting on the contemporary themes of sustainability and technological innovation.
The landscape is based on a strong narrative derived from the local landscape of the River Severn, Malvern H... More
Seattle Central Library
At a moment when libraries are perceived to be under threat from a shrinking public realm on one side and digitization on the other, the Seattle Central Library creates a civic space for the circulation of knowledge in all media, and an innovative organizing system for an ever-growing physical collection – the Books Spiral. The library’s various programmes are intuitively arranged across five platforms and four flowing “in between” planes, which together dictate the building’s distinctive faceted shape, which offers the city an inspiring building that is robust in both its elegance and its logic.
OMA’s ambition is to redefine the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but rather as an information store whe... More
Project • By By Will Alsop • Libraries
PECKHAM LIBRARY
Peckham Library won Britain's most celebrated architectural award, the Stirling Prize, in November 2000.
The brief called for a building of architectural merit which would bring prestige to the borough and engender a sense of ownership and pride for the building by local people. Will Alsop created a building of unique appearance which satisfied both criteria, comprising innovatory solutions to design problems, creating working, archive and meeting spaces of genuine delight and stimulating appearance.
Suspending the main reading room on a cantilevered plane allowed the creation of a new public space below the soffit. Within this room, 'pods' contain meeting rooms and independent collections, with workstations clustered below.
The br... More
Project • By Steven Holl Architects • Exhibition Centres
Knut Hamsun Center
Knut Hamsun, Norway's most inventive twentieth-century writer, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel Hunger. He went on to found a truly modern school of fiction with his works Pan, Mysteries, and Growth of the Soil. This center dedicated to Hamsun is located above the Arctic Circle near the village of Presteid of Hamarøy near the farm where the writer grew up. The 2300-square meter center includes exhibition areas, a library and reading room, a café, and an auditorium equipped with the latest film projection equipment. (Hamsun's writings have been particularly inspiring to filmmakers, which is evident in the more than 17 films based on his work.)
The building is conceived as an archetypal and intensified compression of s... More
Project • By Dok architecten • Libraries
Media library
The media library is part of the Hoogoven Building (former blast-furnace building) in Delft, which also houses shops, restaurants and cafes, apartments and bicycle storage sections. The most important materials of the building are glass and ceramics - dark bricks for the ground floor and orange bricks for the upper storeys. The media library is situated on the Cultuurplein (Culture square), embedded in the surrounding buildings. Its entrance is immediately recognizable there by the high glass façade that has been erected two metres in front of the existing frontage. This exposes the media library to the square, with its activities perfectly visible from the outside. The staircases are located behind this glass façade. Thus, a living image i... More
Project • By Adjaye Associates • Libraries
Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library
Adjaye Associates won an open competition to design two new neighborhood libraries for the District of Columbia. The brief called for the new buildings to be flexible, accessible, welcoming and inviting. Resonating with the Adjaye Associates designed Idea Stores in London’s Tower Hamlets, the libraries challenge the traditional closed typology, introducing a social element that establishes a strong urban and cultural remit.
The sketch-like quality of the Francis A. Gregory Library suggests a woodland folly – a building that is a pavilion within Fort Davis Park. Views of the park are framed from within, while the exterior of the building both reflects and complements the dense composition of trees and the striking natural enviro... More
Project • By LOOK Architects • Libraries
BISHAN PUBLIC LIBRARY
4-storey public library with basement and roof terrace. The prominent 'pods' cantilevered from the facade serve as intimate niches for quiet contemplation. Taking reference from the treehouse, the library interior is animated by natural light filtering through colored glass panels, resembling dappled light passing through the tree canopy. More
The Library
The Library is an extension of an existing culture house combined with a new library and concert hall in Copenhagen’s north-west. The concept of the Library focuses around the creation of a space that is more than just a place you go to find books – the building also works a village hall, a community center and an urban space uniting the neighborhood. The building consists of 4 golden boxes displaced in proportion to each other - like a stack of books. At ground floor, there's a children's library, then a youth library, a library for adults and finally on top, a concert hall. The different volumes are connected with staircases and in the space between the boxes, are multi-purpose areas. More
BOOK MOUNTAIN
This new Library for Spijkenisse is designed as an advertisement for reading, its visibility and inviting presence holding great significance for a community with a 10 percent illiteracy rate. Through its glass facade of the books are visible from all sides, and from the adjacent town square it appears as a mountain of books. Underneath the monumental envelope the books lifespan is not shortened by sunlight, but by the wear and tear or borrowing. Located in the center of Spijkenisse, the 9.300m2 library takes pride of place on the market square, facing the historic village church. In addition to the library the building houses an environmental education center, a chess club, an auditorium, meeting rooms, commercial offices and retail space.... More
Project • By TAX Arquitectura • Libraries
Jose Vasconcelos Library
The idea consists in the creation of an ark, bearer of the human knowledge, which is immersed in a lush botanical garden. In this way, a single creaked, of 35 meters in width, extends along three modules of 82 meters each. Throughout the length of this squeaky runs a thorn that covers the total height of the building, and in which is housed, as an independent structure, a large bookseller able to contain more of the million and a half books required by the program. At the sides of the spine center is available to the reading rooms in generous spaces that have direct contact with the surrounding garden, are equipped with a system of blinds that allows you to fully control the incidence of the sun's rays (which in addition will be filtered by... More
Project • By Toyo Ito • Libraries
Tama Art University Library (Hachioji campus)
Period 2004.4 – 2007.2
Structure steel, concrete mixed structure
reinforced concrete construction
Scale 2 stories, 1 basements
Site Area 159,184.87m2
Building Area 2,224.59m2
Total Floor Area 5,639.46m2
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Project • By Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp • Community Centres
Surry Hills Library and Community Centre
The new Surry Hills Library and Community Centre (SHLCC) sets new standards for integrated sustainable design in public buildings. Innovative environmental systems and sustainable design philosophies are encapsulated in a flexible state-of-the-art community hub that includes a library over 2 levels, community centre and child-care facility. The design seeks to establish a contemporary sense of place that will provide an open and inviting public facility with strong connection to its setting. We have sought to create a certain ‘monumentality’, significance and dignity to this important public place, and the community values it embodies. The architecture is conceived with simple forms, each a response to the urban framework while symbiotic to... More
Project • By Bablowsky&Wlasenko Architects • Libraries
Public Libary in Kharkiv
Kharkiv is the student's capital of Ukraine. Local studentship composes about 16 % of city's population. But all libraries have out-of-date equipment and librarian organization The main competition goal is designing of the first mediateka in Ukraine. Up-to-date educational and research facilities will have been accessible for moreover than 230 000 students.
The plot allocated by authorities of Kharkiv is not apt because of it is part of the park. About 50 trees have been growing there since 1950-s. Environmentalists claim to move the location to another place. In this project we tried to reserve trees the more the better. Special shaped atria were implemented to avoid 13 trees. Daylightning is the subsidiary function of them.
This buildin... More