Lusty Libraries_Part 2

It’s fairly safe to assume we can all agree that books infuse spaces with texture, colour, depth and character, adding a sense of comfort and a certain warmth. In this increasingly digital and intangible world we live in, books and libraries give us a sense of security and the familiar, at the same time evoking a certain thirst for knowledge – a child-like wonder. Having said all this, unless you’re at Hogwarts, libraries can be a fairly uninspiring place to hang out. Rows and rows of boring books, spines of which are hardly the material de jour for architectural masterpieces. Without so much as a floating bookcase or levitating random book to keep you engaged, how is one to entice the reader into the Hallowed Halls? How do you take piles of books and construct an interior that not only encapsulates the reason for the space, that is to sit and read, but also takes the same space to a whole never level that actually makes one want to submerge into it? These exceptional examples of libraries (and bookstores) across the globe not only engage the mind, but invigorate the soul… and without so much as an abracadabra swish of a wand.

The Sea Library in Awashima, Japan by ETAT Arkitekter

What do you get when you mix Scandinavian design with a Japanese aesthetic? A symphony of beauty, simplicity and extraordinary detailing. Stockholm-based Erik Törnkvist and Malin Belfrage of ETAT Architects have designed this little library dedicated to the sea. The space is located inside a 1920s schoolhouse on Awashima Island in the Seto Inland Sea. The Library is part of the Setouchi Triennale 2013 – it is a place where visitors are invited to donate books about the history and stories of the ocean.

Khan’s iconic Phillips Exeter Academy Library, with 160,000 volumes on nine levels and a shelf capacity of 250,000 volumes, is the largest secondary school library in the world. When it became clear in the 1950s that the library had outgrown its existing building, the school hired an architect who proposed a traditional design for the new building. Deciding instead to construct a contemporary library, the school awarded the commission to Louis Kahn in 1965. In 1997, the library received the Twenty-five Year Award from the American Institute of Architects, recognising this building as a work of architecture of enduring significance – an award given to just one building per year.

Libraries in Japan are moving towards a model that encourages readers to stay and linger, instead of their original function as spaces for collecting and lending out books. This library consists of a single quiet and tranquil room that resembles a forest, filled with soft light and a feeling of openness reminiscent of the outdoors. The overall structure of the library resembles an internal three-layered floor covered with a large box. The large external “punching wall” in the cavernous reading room features some 6,000 small openings (measuring 200, 250 and 300mm) across its entire surface that allow a soft, uniform light to enter the building.

This library was originally a sales pavilion built in Guiyang, Guizhou China. Instead of it becoming a temporary building, the architects introduced a community library into the building as a sustainable solution. The design is inspired by a toy, a building block if you will. They built the bookcases in the same way as one plays with building blocks. They re-define the whole space by stacking and overlapping two atriums, from the ground to the ceiling. The mezzanine corridor which connects the two clusters of “blocks”, not only increases the reading area but also produces a dramatic and coherent space. It is cantilevered with independent steel structures hidden in the bookcases so that no columns are exposed.

A grand and historic library, the renovation of these buildings is both distinguished and beautiful. After careful consideration and intense research the architects devised several key strategies to redesign the complex. A central longitudinal foyer as the main access. Central stairway that ensures vertical access and shifting the divide between public and non-public areas. In areas that needed reconfiguring or where some level of intervention was necessary they kept the palette and finishes fairly neutral.

In some areas this library towers 38 meters high, standing tall in comparison to the low level architecture that tends to be seen in Berlin, which is known to be a fairly ‘flat’ city. This part of the building thrusts itself into the silhouette of the cultural landscape. From the forecourt, one arrives in the centre of the elongated, two-story foyer. This forms a light-flooded prelude in a refined succession of rooms leading to the heart of the building, the great reading room. The great reading room was arranged in receding levels. Through its size and its many-tiered, almost scenic design, the space effects a sense of the outdoors, which is further emphasised by the large plates of glass used in the “sky” glazing.

A bookstore with a meeting place was the main premise of the architectural project of the bookstore Livraria Cultura at Iguatemi. More than just merely a place to shop, the store is inviting to stay and hang-out. The books encircle the space, supported by eleven large tables arranged orthogonally in the large room and on white stands on the peripheral areas. These shelves have built-in LEDs and delimit the space, as a cube internally clad with books. A multi-use room, especially for conferences – that earned the name philosophical café -, a room reserved for a garden and books for children, completing the program.

The museum built in memory of the author Shiba Ryotaro, was designed by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando and is built on a site in Higashiosaka, next to the house where the author lived for many years. The project for the two buildings was conceived as a single integrated whole. The study that faces the park houses his impressive library.

This library was the winning proposal for a competition held in Ghent, Belgium. It was the transformation of an existing hall into a library at the faculty of architecture at Ghent University. The remarkable aspect of this refurbishment was the insertion of a large, pavilion-like piece of furniture under the existing balcony of the Physics hall. This accessible, three-storied cupboard, bolted construction of prefabricated steel elements, forms a complete perimeter around the central, atrium-like space, enforcing its monumental scale.

Stay tuned for Part 3.
Instinct Furniture BLOG, mostly about cool libraries, furniture and design – keeping you abreast of our world. (Source: Yellowtrace).