Typology of the Modern Library

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“WHEN IN DOUBT, GO TO THE LIBRARY” J. K. ROWLING

L I B R A R Y O F CO N T E N T S • MODEL LIBRARIES & THEIR FUNCTIONS • LIBRARY ENVIRONMENT & PHYSICAL SPACE • CASE STUDIES • SPACE PLANNING PRINCIPLES

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MODEL LIBRARIES & THEIR FUNCTIONS

A library is a place where any member of the community can come to gather information, look for a book to read for enjoyment, or find ways to improve their work or daily lives. Successful libraries come in all shapes and sizes but they share certain characteristics that help them operate efficiently, meet the needs of their communities and provide an environment where users of all ages and interests can discover, explore and develop a love for learning and reading.

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Libraries are advocates for your right to read and your right to reader privacy; essentially to protect your rights. Protecting user privacy and confidentiality is another integral part of the mission of libraries.

Libraries are places to innovate in, andfor community engagement, a platform for great minds to come together. They are becoming a place for creation and collaboration.

Recently, libraries of all types have started assigning spaces for markerspace; to create space and activities that center around creativity. They are capitalizing on a priceless commodity: the sharing of personal knowledge, or learning by doing.

Libraries are community hubs. They connect people to people.

They are safe havens for kids when school is not in session, offering after school homework help, games and book clubs.

Libraries provide access to the online world for free, offering computer classeses, enabling older adults stay engaged in a digital world.

Libraries level the playing field. As great democratic institutions, serving people of every age, income level, location, ethnicity, or physical ability, and providing the full range of information resources needed to live, learn, govern, and work.

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Planners and designers define space in response to anticipated user patterns, identifying the physical characteristics of this space and the specific value it will add to the educational mission of the institution as a whole. The quick and easy solution to any per- ceived need was formula driven—always to add more space, which can sometimes be in the form of a courtyard.

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Early program and planning decisions have a major impact on the budget, the quality of work, potential interruptions to ongoing services, and ongoing operations and maintenance.

Intensive dialogue helps the client’s planning and decisionmaking team understand the physical implications of its planning goals. Institutions today are asking for and receiving much greater accountability for the use of their library space.

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They need to know how it enhances the institution’s educational mission and at what cost. While certain principal design elements—such as the articulation of the perimeter wall, the introduction and control of natural light, and the placement of core areas for stairs, toilets, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning—will remain relatively constant, the majority of space must be capable of adapting to changes in use.

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L I B R A R Y E N V I R O N M E N T & P H Y S I C A L S PA C E Decorations and displays that create a welcoming environment. They can reflect the local and national culture, reinforce academic content or provide information to library patrons.

Special activity corners, such as a Children’s Corner, Author’s Corner or Games Corner, where the library’s patrons can participate in educational activities in an engaging environment.

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Sufficient work areas that can be arranged to meet the needs of various users, organized book stacks that are available to users and plenty of light to read and work.

Special display areas that invite exploration, discovery and a love for learning. They can range from information about current and historical events to thematic displays of books from the library’s collection.

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“LIBRARIES STORE THAT ENERGY THE FUELS THE IMAGINATION. THEY OPEN UP WINDOWS TO THE WORLD AND INSPIRE US TO EXPLORE AND ACHIEVE, AND CONTRIBUTE TO IMPROVING OUR QUALITY OF LIFE.” - SIDENY SHELDON 13

I N D E P E N D E N C E L I B R A R Y A N D A PA R T M E N T S / JOHN RONAN ARCHITECTS, 2019

This hybrid library/affordable housing project in Chicago combines a 16,000 square foot branch library with a 44-unit affordable apartment complex for seniors. The two-story library element is slid forward on the site to the street to foreground its public nature, while the residential block, which hovers above, is set back from the street.

Apartments feature brightly-colored balconies recessed into the façade speak to individuality amidst the collective, enabling residents to identify their house from the street in a conscious attempt to transcend the brutal pragmatism which has characterized Chicago’s past efforts in this area.

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I N D E P E N D E N C E L I B R A R Y A N D A PA R T M E N T S / JOHN RONAN ARCHITECTS

The two-story library supports reading and learning areas for all age groups, as well as a large community multi-purpose room which supports public lectures, gatherings and events. The second floor of the library extends out over the covered parking to form a park-like terrace space serving as an outdoor amenity space for residents as well as occasional library use.

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S E AT T L E C E N T R A L L I B R A R Y / O M A + L M N , 2 0 0 4 The Seattle Central Library redefines the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store where all potent forms of media—new and old—are presented equally and legibly. In an age where information can be accessed anywhere, it is the simultaneity of all media and, more importantly, the curatorship of their content that will make the library vital.

Flexibility in contemporary libraries is conceived as the creation of generic floors on which almost any activity can occur. Programs are not separated, rooms or individual spaces not given unique characters. In practice, this means that bookcases define generous (though nondescript) reading areas on opening day, but, through the collection’s relentless expansion, inevitably come to encroach on the public space.

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S E AT T L E C E N T R A L L I B R A R Y / O M A + L M N

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The problem of traditional library organization is flatness. Departments are organized according to floor plans. Each floor is discreet; the unpredictable fits of growth and contraction in certain sections are, theoretically, contained within a single floor.

The Book Spiral implies a reclamation of the much-compromised Dewey Decimal System. By arranging the collection in a continuous ribbon—running from 000 to 999—the subjects form a coexistence that approaches the organic; each evolves relative to the others, occupying more or less space on the ribbon, but never forcing a rupture.

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Q ATA R N AT I O N A L L I B R A R Y / O M A , 2 0 1 7 Qatar National Library is part of the Education City, a new academic campus which hosts satellite campuses from leading universities and institutions from around the world.

The library is conceived as a single room which houses both people and books. The edges of the building are lifted from the ground creating three aisles which accommodate the book collection and, at the same time, enclose a central triangular space. This configuration also allows the visitor to access the building at its center, rather than laboriously entering from the perimeter. The aisles are designed as a topography of shelving, interspersed with spaces for reading, socializing and browsing.

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Q ATA R N AT I O N A L L I B R A R Y / O M A

A column-free bridge connects the library’s main aisles, allowing for a variety of routes throughout the building. The bridge is also a meeting space: it hosts media and study rooms, reading tables, exhibition displays, a circular conference table, and a large multipurpose auditorium, enclosed by a retractable curtain designed by Amsterdam studio InsideOutside, who were also responsible for the landscaping.

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TIANJIN BINHAI LIBRARY / MVRDV + TUPDI, 2017 MVRDV in collaboration with local architects TUPDI has completed the Tianjin Binhai Library, a 33,700m2 cultural centre featuring a luminous spherical auditorium around which floorto-ceiling bookcases cascade. The undulating bookshelf is the building’s main spatial device, and is used both to frame the space and to create stairs, seating, the layered ceiling and even louvres on the façade. Tianjin Binhai Library was designed and built in a record-breaking time of only three years due to a tight schedule imposed by the local municipality. The library was commissioned by Tianjin Binhai Municipality and is located in the cultural centre of Binhai district in Tianjin, a coastal metropolis outside Beijing, China The five level building also contains extensive educational facilities, arrayed along the edges of the interior and accessible through the main atrium space. Public program is supported by subterranean service spaces, book storage, and a large archive. From the ground floor visitors can easily access reading areas for children and the elderly, the auditorium, the main entrance, terraced access to the floors above and connection to the cultural complex. The first and second floors consist primarily of reading rooms, books and lounge areas whilst the upper floors also include meeting rooms, offices, computer and audio rooms and two roof top patios.

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TIANJIN BINHAI LIBRARY / MVRDV + TUPDI

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MVRDV in collaboration with local architects TUPDI has completed the Tianjin Binhai Library, a cultural centre featuring a luminous spherical auditorium around which floor-to-ceiling bookcases cascade. The undulating bookshelf is the building’s main spatial device, and is used both to frame the space and to create stairs, seating, the layered ceiling and even louvres on the façade. Reviews describe it as an ‘Ocean of Books’ (CCTV) and the ‘Most beautiful library of China’ (The Bund). Comments on social media call the building a ‘sea of knowledge’, ‘Super Sci-Fi’ or simply ‘The Eye.’ Most importantly, it is clear that the people of Tianjin have embraced the new space - and that it has become the urban living room it was intended to be.

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L I B R A R Y S PA C E P L A N N I N G P R I N C I P L E S

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WORK WITH THE BUILDING, NOT AGAINST IT MAXIMIZE NATURAL LIGHT CREATE A SENSE OF ARRIVAL MIX INTIMATE SPACES WITH LONGER VIEWS THROUGH USE COLOUR AND IMAGERY TO CREATE AMBIANCE AND STIMULUS MINIMIZE BARRIERS AND CONTROL SIGNS USE CURVES TO OPEN UP SPACES OFFER A CHOICE OF WHERE AND HOW TO SIT OR STUDY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY PHOTO AND TEXT:

Beek, Marijke, Eva DeCario, and W. M. J. Arets. Living Library : Wiel Arets, Utrecht University Library Munich ;: Prestel, 2005.

Fracalossi, Igor. “Seattle Central Library / OMA LMN.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, February 10, 2009. https://www. archdaily.com/11651/seattle-central-library-oma-lmn.

Press, 2007.

Mattern, Shannon Christine. The New Downtown Library : Designing with Communities Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Hernández, Diego. “Qatar National Library / OMA.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, April 17, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/892727/qatar-national-library-oma?ad_source=search&ad_medium=search_result_projects.

Spens, Michael., and Alvar Aalto. Viipuri Library, 1927-1935 : Alvar Aalto London: Academy Editions, 1994.

Caballero, Pilar. “Independence Library and Apartments / John Ronan Architects.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, November 1, 2019. https://www.archdaily.com/927467/independence-library-and-apartments-john-ronan-architects.

Kito, Azusa. Libraries, new concepts in architecture & design Tokyo, Japan: Meisei Publications, 1995.

Quintal, Becky. “Tianjin Binhai Library / MVRDV Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, November 2, 2017. https://www.archdaily.com/882819/tianjin-binhai-library-mvrdv-plus-tianjin-urbanplanning-and-design-institute.

TEXT ONLY:

Staff, Gale, November 17, 2018.

“What Libraries Do.” I Love Libraries. Accessed April 4, 2020. http://www.ilovelibraries.org/what-libraries-do.

“Culture of Reading • Child Aid.” Child Aid. Accessed April 4, 2020. https://child-aid.org/our-solution/culture-of-reading/.

Library as Place: Rethinking Roles, Rethinking Space. Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 2005.

“Unleash Your Library’s Full Potential.” Opening the Book. Accessed April 4, 2020. https://www.openingthebook.com/library-design/library-space-planning.

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