Library of the Future

History of the Library

Architect's Handbook, p253

- First 'public libraries' in the 15th century London

- Attachment to institutions - mechanics, literary, philosophical
- Public Libraries Act 1850, free for all, open to the working and lower classes. Providing a civic good, civilising the working masses, seen to benefit society.

- Lending library (book stacks)

- Reference department

- (Children's department)

- Reading rooms - men, women often separated

Open access by 1930s

Dewey decimal classification system

1950s welfare state - reference and study facilities

Other media to complement books - gramophone records, cassettes, video tapes, CDs and DVDs.

British Museum Reading Room (Architects Handbook, p253)

General Requirements

Community libraries - adults and children, reference

University: reference, research, growing collections

One space per 6 students

2.5 - 3.0m2 per reader, carrel or desk

Quiet spaces, noisy spaces

1. Browsing

2. Seeking

3. Studying

4. Meeting 

5. Browsing

Open plans with variations.

Library of the Future (Evolution)

Traditional role of the library:

- Repository of books and other media

- Place for academic and social encounters

Reinterpretations of the modern library:
- An urban living room, centres of urban sociability.
- A third place (apart from home and work), actively used by all citizens. (Ray Oldenburg, Contemporary Library Architecture p10)
- A curation of diverse sources of information and knowledge.
- Changing role of the librarian.
- Collective versus individual. "A building where you collectively do something individual" [Contemporary Library Architecture, p ii]

It may be the case even today that most students access most of their research or information from online sources, where it is through native webpages or digital copies of books and journals. However many students will still choose to go to the library even though they do not strictly need to or intend to access the physical collections available. The library is a place of collective study, each individual or group goes about performing their own personal tasks in a collective community. Of course many also come to access the services and facilities that are available, such as computers, internet wi-fi, photocopying and scanning, etc.

The differences between public and campus libraries - the former becoming more transparent in the hope of attracting passers-by, the latter can take on a more insular approach with private study spaces for students that allow students to retreat from the outside world for the day.


Maximising flexibility.
Allowing future changes and expansion.
From book storage to online information exchange.
Additional ventilation & secure power, suitable lighting

Precedents:

- Seattle Public Library (OMA, Rem Koolhaas)

- The compartmentalisation of the open plan.
- The continuous book spiral, which accommodates for the future expansion/contraction of the book collection.

- Sendai Mediatheque (Toyo Ito)

Flow of spaces. The architecture does not create spaces by means of enclosure, the open plan allows the user to define space organically.
Transparency.

The ground floor foyer blurs the distinction between inside and outside, private and public. The transparent glazed walls also open up as folding doors. The interior becomes a crucial part of the public domain, visitors sit and relax to have tea and coffee as if in the context of a public piazza.

The organic and arbitrarily forms of the steel tube provide structural support and allow the flow of natural light, ventilation and mechanical services. A thin honeycomb structure in the floor slab convey the forces to the steel tubes. Ito avoids the use of thick, prominent beams which he believes would have disrupted the flow of the space and distracted from the vertical structures. There are no structural walls or bracing. Link

Hollow columns: Rather than the solidity of typical columns, the steel tube structures express a lightness and delicate quality such that it is difficult to tell they are structural.

Elimination of hierarchy: [Tarzan in Media Forest]

Eliminating as much as possible of the distinction between served and service spaces: "Interactive service model"[Tarzan in Media Forest]

Rejecting the allocation of specific programs for rooms: Rather than having a room for drinking coffee and a room for reading books, spaces should accommodate multiple and diverse activities. [Tarzan in Media Forest]

- Tama Art Library (Toyo Ito)

The imperceptibility of interior and exterior, difficult to determine where one begins and another ends, like walking into a forest - a forest of concrete trees. The columns do not divide or cut off space, they subtly suggest zones and differentiations. Rather than enforcing artificial terracing or stepping into a level ground floor, the natural slope of the exterior is continued inside, again diminishing the distinction between inside and out.

Delft University Library (Mecanoo)

Floor area: 15,000m2

Program: Underground book archive, reading room, uni publisher, offices, historical books & exhibition, study spaces, book binder and book shop. Includes 1000 workstations.

Accommodates: 3000 students each day. Heart of the uni and becomes a landmark with town-sized campus.

Sustainability features: Intensive green roof, high performance glazing facade, subterranean storage for heating & cooling

Symbiotic relationship with brutalist aula (auditorium), concrete "frog" within grassed landscape.

Library within hollow underneath landscape, landscape punctured by cone (symbol of tech)

(http://www.greenroofs.com/blog/2012/01/11/gpw-delft-university-of-technology-library/)

Old Bibliotheque Nationale (1875, Labrouste)

Stockholm Library (1927, Asplund)

Library Design Considerations

- The triangular section of land vacated by the diversion of The Crescent opens up the very important space currently occupied by Balmain Rentals and Smash Repairs. The space should be returned to the public as part of the public domain - as a public square for the community. This location lies at the crucial junction between the park, the viaduct as both a wall/barrier and a gateway into the park as well as the natural terrace (currently occupied by the TAFE campus). The proposed library and square    should form as a part of an architectural and landscape solution at this junction to resolve issues and recreate this space for the local community.

Why landscape solution?
The overall site is defined by a sequence of stepping down of the terrain formed by the alterations of the land from naturally sloping land to series of terraces.

It is tempting to put a new and dominant 2, 3, 4 storey building in the location of the TAFE campus. However, on closer inspection, this area provides great views from Johnston St towards the north and north-west of the viaduct, the steel truss bridge, park, harbour and city. The site does not seem to want the placement of another object that dominates and obscures the sweeping views highlighted by the flat plane of the terrace. Instead what is called for is the decluttering of the site by the removal of the TAFE buildings, and the introduction of a low lying intervention (of plants, landscape and architectural elements) integrated together. In this way the foreground (though adding amenities for the students and public) plays a secondary role (it becomes quieter and crouches down) in order to reveal the 'performers' on the stage - the ANZAC bridge, the city skyline and the viaduct.

The level change between the land currently occupied by Balmain Rentals and the land currently occupied by the TAFE site is facilitated by a sandstone retaining walls for the terrace which is around 4m in height at the intersection between The Crescent and View Street and 0-1m in height nearer to the steel bridge crossing as the level rises from the northern part of Balmain Rentals towards the bridge.

Historically, the current TAFE site was close the original coastline and was part of naturally (and in places quite dramatic) sloping terrain towards the shoreline. However, perhaps in order to make the land more capable and productive in serving the industrial programs of the area, various parts of the land were flattened and terraced, with the sandstone removed and integrated into the retaining walls along the western side of the present The Crescent and the western side of Johnston St.

Ideas for the library facade from the square:

Blade walls that are:

- Look like they are part of the landscape, of the land, rising from the land.

- Simple, restrained and minimal in form and appearance.

- Represents the idea of the historical retaining wall (without actually being one)

- Look like a retaining wall or rock face that is holding up the landscape.

- Express the unpredictable and rugged texture of rock and masonry.

- Deep recesses between the blades that hide the glazing within, when viewed from side on.

- The illusion of a continuous masonry surface that extends into the distance.

Giants Causeway Visitors' Centre, Northern Ireland (Heneghan Peng Architects)

Giants Causeway Visitors' Centre, Northern Ireland (Heneghan Peng Architects)

The library as free and accessible to all. Cornerstone of being part of a civic community.

The third place

A new hub for social life among the community.

Program

Children's zone/library

Outdoor spaces part of the library that can be used as interior is used.
Cafe/Restaurant

Sustainability

Green Roof

Natural cross ventilation.

The facade as a dynamic digital screen

Location and form enables it to be seen from multiple perspectives and distances.

Pedestrian crossing at Johnstons Creek

Through the arches (gateway) from the park.

From the approach from the workshops.

Note the seating in the foreground can be used by the public to sit and view the square and projections onto the facade.

Driving along The Crescent

Square
Musical events
Community gatherings - social, political [render with people protesting]
Farmers Markets
School Assemblies and Graduations

School of the Future

School of the Future

What is mean to be a school that is designed and catered to the needs of students of the 21st century? How do the values of our education system differ that of past generations?



The growth of new forms of technology:
- The proliferation of the internet as a revolutionary means of accessing the collective sum of the world's knowledge and wisdom, from all places and at all times. The internet has collapsed the tyranny of time and distance. Our perception of space and time is now vastly different to that which our forebears are accustomed to.
- The rise of handheld devices has made accessing the internet 'ether' much easier and intuitive. The mobile phone has become an indispensable tool which everyone always carries around and uses frequently throughout a typical day. Much like jewellery and wristwatches, the phone has almost become an extension of our own bodies.
- The advent of social media occurred gradually in the 1990s and 2000s. These services gained greater traction with the growth of modern smart phones, the need to share and communicate with social networks on the move, sharing events instantaneously and in real time.
Effects of social media: greater sense of connectedness between families and friends separated by distance, the instantaneous sharing of thoughts and events broadcast to a broad audience, changes in the way in which young people are communicating with each other. Vertical connection between people - being connected and exposed to people of kind-mind and persuasion. Echo chamber effect.

Supplementing the traditional classroom experience with social networking services (like blogs).