Library Design | City of Phoenix Cesar Chavez Regional Library | Line and Space

Designed to accomodate up to 40,000 visitors per month, this new 120,000-volume library for the the City of Phoenix is located adjacent to an existing lake in a public park. A large roof shades floor-to-ceiling glass from the harsh summer sun and collects rainwater (stored in the existing lake) to be reused for irrigation, while earth berms surrounding the library, provide thermal mass and quietly integrate it into the park-scape. The Children's Area has an overhead sculptural "kite" which lowers the ceiling plane to a child-appropriate scale, and features an interactive display wall for kids ages 0-3, 9 dedicated computer stations, a "homework help" area with tables and chairs, and secluded story room........more

Library Extension | Edwardian Library | Croydon | London | FAT

The project involves the refurbishment and extension of an existing Edwardian Library in Croydon, South London. FAT were originally commissioned by Croydon Council to undertake a feasibility study of the library looking at how it could be modernised to achieve contemporary access requirements. The ground floor of the building included several difficult changes in level while the lower floor and rear garden remained inaccessible. In addition the building fabric was in poor condition and the original interior detailing lost under a number of additions and modifications.........more

The extension to the national library of Austria | Vienna | Prechteck

prechteck’s design proposal for the extension to the national library of Austria located at the Hofburg in Vienna contains a number of cultural facilities, creative studios, a restaurant and shops.
straddling the border of a nearby park, the project is a continuous spiral form that houses its 1200sqm core exhibition hall and a smaller 600sqm multifunctional hall underground.
pulling up out of the urban landscape, the extension features a mosaic form of crystal-like excisions along its body, allowing natural daylight to filter through to the interior. public circulation on the street level is not damaged by the extension, which arches off the ground to create a curvilinear roof garden on its roof. drop-off and fire emergency line is placed under the arch, allowing cars to drive under the structure to access the main entrance.
all of the mentioned facilities are housed in one seamless structure, creating at each point a different spatial experience towards the Hofburg and directs its visitors intuitively to the foyer and into its programs.....more

Main library Deichman Oslo | Atelier Oslo

Main library Deichman Oslo is the new public library that will be in Bjørvika, as part of deichman axis. Library is building an environment where everything from exterior to interior meets stringent environmental standards.

Intentions
In order to integrate into the Deichman axis Bjørbvikabebyggelsen and give buildings a human scale, building mass is divided into three volumes. A diagonal street is established to provide the opera better access from the east, and also creates two smaller plassrom in the area. The library is placed in the plot of the Opera Alley to create the shortest route to public transportation, and the best views of the city, the bay and the surrounding green hills. The building is made visible at the top of the building collars out, and announces his presence to the visitors who come from Railway Square and Central Station.

Large cuts in the facade marks the entrances on three sides of the building, and invites the audience in from all corners of the city. The same cuts allow passersby to see into and through the diagonal lines run in the library, and the various library environments. The library has a flexibility that allows it to absorb many future features, and divided into different audio zones.

The translucent facade diffuses the light and gives a soothing feeling to the interior. At night the building will glow and change appearance, and one can discern from the outside the different activities and events taking place inside the library.....more

Waitakere Central Library And Unitect Facilities | Auckland, New Zealand | Architectus

Designed by Architectus Auckland in conjunction with Athfield Architects, this project consists of the new Waitakere City Central Library, which also integrates the UNITEC collection, and new teaching facilities for the UNITEC Institute of Technology. Sited adjacent to the existing UNITEC building in Henderson, the two buildings (and a third, attached car parking building) are arranged around a new pedestrian street and urban square to form a new civic precinct. Part of a building programme that includes the nearby Waitakere Civic Centre, the project is intended to act as a catalyst for the future development of the Henderson CBD.

National Library of Austria Extension | Prechteck

Prechteck’s design proposal for the extension to the national library of Austria located at the Hofburg in Vienna contains a number of cultural facilities, creative studios, a restaurant and shops.
straddling the border of a nearby park, the project is a continuous spiral form that houses its 1200sqm core exhibition hall and a smaller 600sqm multifunctional hall underground.
pulling up out of the urban landscape, the extension features a mosaic form of crystal-like excisions along its body, allowing natural daylight to filter through to the interior. public circulation on the street level is not damaged by the extension, which arches off the ground to create a curvilinear roof garden on its roof. drop-off and fire emergency line is placed under the arch, allowing cars to drive under the structure to access the main entrance.
all of the mentioned facilities are housed in one seamless structure, creating at each point a different spatial experience towards the Hofburg and directs its visitors intuitively to the foyer and into its programs......more

Public Library of Brixen | Italy | AQUILIALBERG

The Aquilialberg project of the Public Library of Bressanone has the aim to become a new gathering location for the population. Following this line, the project is designed to assure wide spaces for socialization, both interior and exterior, to accommodate public manifestations and cultural encounters. It is a place to spread knowledge, in which citizen could feel themselves at ease and spend spare time constructively. A deep design study is conducted for the new volume; the starting point was the relation with the existing neighbors volumes and their geometries. An especially attention is given to the orientation of the roofs' slopes of the closest buildings, with the purpose to match, in the most elegant way, the new project with the context of the city. The composition language, developed in the design of the new volume, came from the push of the neighbor roofs' slopes through the competition site. A void is generated and it worked as a hinge matching the existing volumes with the new Library building. The Hinge-Volume material is glass, chosen to respect the relation between historical past of the existing and the new presence.....more

District of Columbia Public Libraries - Anacostia Library | Washington, DC | Freelon

LOCATION: Washington, DC
PROJECT SIZE: 23,000 SQ FT
PROJECT COST: $9,500,000

The Anacostia Library creates a civic building of which area residents can be proud. A variety of spaces to meet a wide range of community needs are in the new facility. Spaces include a large public meeting room (for approximately 100 people), two smaller meeting rooms, a children’s program room, as well as smaller rooms for group study and for tutoring. There are shelving areas for print and non-print materials for all ages. Multiple points of access to virtual spaces through the public PCs and wireless access are included.

The children’s area has areas (including collection and seating) dedicated to various age groups (five and under, beginning readers and elementary age). There is a distinctive area for young adults to meet and to learn. Adults have their own reading areas, online access area and a large collection of materials.

The Anacostia Library has a larger share of the library space devoted to children’s services than in other branches, because its service area has more children than in other DC neighborhoods—both in numbers and as a percentage of the population. In addition to online access for children, there is a large collection of print and non-print resources (CD books, DVDs and mixed-media kits) for children from birth to age twelve. Children’s librarians provide regular story programs in which they model behaviors and reader’s advisory services to children and their caregivers to encourage reading and early literacy.....more

NEMBRO LIBRARY | Nembro - Bergamo, Italy | Archea

LOCATION Nembro - Bergamo
PROJECT Biblioteca e centro culturale
CLIENT Comune di Nembro
STRUCTURES Favero&Milan Ingegneria
TEMPERATURE CONTROL SYSTEMS Studio Tecnico Zambonin
ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS Eros Grava
PLAN 2002
REALIZATION 2005-2007
COST € 1.888.250,00;
BUILT AREA 1.875 sq m
VOLUME 11.200 cu m
CONTRACTOR Zeral srl Costruzioni edili

A building erected in 1897, intended as a primary school, that has been used for many purposes over the years, first becoming town hall, then kindergarten and finally consulting room. The request of the municipality was to solve the contingent state of abandon, turning the building into a library, to provide the town with a facility dedicated to education and information of the residents.
The strategic position in relation to the urban tissue, the architectural character of the original structure, closed on three sides, and the need for new spaces oriented the project towards the addition of a new wing in the form of a new construction that closes the only open side, that once faced a courtyard.
The new building, connected via the basement, is separated from the existing structure on all sides, thus underscoring a difference that, in spite of the communicating plan, bears witness to a constructive and formal choice that establishes a dialectic contrast with the historical character of the original building; completely transparent, it is characterized by its surface, made of terracotta elements measuring 40x40 centimeters, glazed in carmine red, supported by a structure made from coupled steel profiles. This building technique has made it possible to screen and filter the sunlight.
The choice of earthenware has been suggested precisely by the typical characteristics of the material, its performance as a screen protecting from light and its link to traditional building methods, but also by the contemporary image created thanks to the assembly technique and its durability.
A large room with computers available for consulting is located in the basement, which also provides access to the new building and its reading room that contains, in the manner of a casket, the precious books available for consulting; the triple height is exploited by two projecting mezzanines housing numerous reading desks, while the main study rooms are located on the ground and first floor of the old building....more

BOLLES+WILSON | City Library Helmond, The Netherlands

Like most Dutch cities Helmond is busy reinventing itself. The new City Library, which officially opens in October 2010, is the first component of a comprehensive new inner city shopping zone (master plan: Prof. Joan Busquets).
Directly adjacent to the new library are the 1970’s Tree Houses and Theatre by Piet Blom. Here the new library facade is moulded and sloped in dialogue with its dramatic neighbour.
A between space, a block internal café terrace, a comfortable and dramatic extension of the existing enclosed Theatre Square is the result of this spatial symbiosis.
The outer, street-facing facade is the representative face and entrance of the new library. Upper level projections mark the extremities, brackets (ears) carrying large-format 'Bibliotheek' letters. A horizontal facade articulation differentiates ground level shops from glazed and setback first floor (Children’s Library) and the brick surface of the upper office level.
A careful detailing and material choice for external surfaces provides a ‘tactility’ fitting to the historic Helmond city centre. Rough dark brown and unusually horizontal bricks (Hilversum format 50 x 290 mm) on upper levels have open vertical joints and a beige horizontal mortar joint, stressing the layered grain of the brickwork. In contrast the base is in a flat beige brick (in 3 different heights - 50, 100, 140 mm). These are not laid in mortar, but glued together - resulting in a stone-like solidity and homogeneity.
The internal spaces of the library are developed as an unfolding spatial sequence. Much of the ground floor is given over to retail. Entry is from both sides – via a generous double height entrance hall to the street side and via the more intimate café and event corner facing the Theatre Court.
The upward sequence is announced by a grand stair, which arrives at a first floor exhibition deck and the 'piano nobile' of the library. Here information stations, bookshelves and children / teenager zones are arranged around a central media Hot Spot: precisely circular, a Chinese-red sandwich. The Hot Spot offers the digital latest.
The route continues upward concluding in the light-filled upper level with a long working bench integrated in the long 'tree house-facing' window.
BOLLES+WILSON’s commission also included furniture and lighting elements, the choreographing of atmosphere and character. Lanterns in the foyer, a newspaper reading table, a striped and upholstered café bench seat with Scandinavian lighting, information counters and a group study room with fragments of a 1950’s mural mounted on the wall, are among the long list of localised detail. The philosophy is one of multiplicity, a user-friendly comfort already much appreciated by librarians and reading Helmonders......more

UN Studio | Urban Library of the Future and Centre for New Media

Architect's Statement
The design for the Urban Library of the Future and Centre for New Media creates a dynamic, flexible and open knowledge environment, with an open landscape, alternative circulation routes, several meeting areas and a public plaza. The building is fluid in form, accommodating to its surroundings and incorporates expansive sightlines. The internal organisation of the building is based on an open central void, around which the circulation takes place. This void enhances the spatial experience, creates clear orientation through the building and fulfills a bridging function between the city and the Municipal Library. The structure of the building makes it possible to introduce (green) roof terraces whilst also ensuring low levels of direct sunlight penetration.

Client: CVBA Waalse Krook
Location: Gent, Belgium
Building surface: 19.498,6 m2
Programme: Library and Centre for New Media
Status: Competition entry

UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Gerard Loozekoot with Jacques van Wijk, Wesley Lanckriet and Jordan Trachtenberg, Ren Yee, Wendy van der Knijff , Bartek Winnicki, Aurélie Krotoff, Patrik Noome, Marcin Koltunski, Joerg Lonkwitz, Miguel Noë, Imola Berczi, Elena Scripelliti

Advisors
Structure : ABT, Antwerp and Netherlands
Installations : ABT, Netherlands
Fire : ABT, Antwerp and Netherlands
Costs : ABT, Antwerp and Netherlands
Local architect : Crepain Binst Architecture, Antwerp

Pictures here

Zaha Hadid | University of Economics & Business, Vienna | Austria

Currently under construction, Zaha Hadid’s dramatic design for a new Library and Learning Centre rises as a polygonal block from the centre of a new campus (masterplan by BUSarchitecture) at the University of Economic & Business, Vienna.

Employing both inclined and straight edges, the library structure takes the form of a cube whose sweeping lines separate as they move inwards. These edges become curvilinear and fluid to create a free-formed internal public plaza at the centre of the complex. Additional library facilities are contained within a single volume which divides and then intertwines to enclose this glazed gathering space.

At 28,000 sq m the new library is generous in size and will comprise of a ‘Learning Centre’ with workplaces, lounges and cloakrooms, library, a language laboratory, training classrooms, administration offices, study services and central supporting services, copy shop, book shop, data center, cafeteria, event area, clubroom and auditorium. Initiated through a two-phase competition in 2008 the project is slated for completion in 2012.

Zaha Hadid commented: “I am delighted to be working in Vienna as I have a close affiliation with the city. As a centre of research, the Library and Learning Centre is forum for the exchange of ideas. It is very exciting for us to be part of the University’s expansion.”

Pictures at WAN

Steven Holl Architects | New Queens Library, New York

Steven Holl Architects has been selected to design the new library at the Queens West Development at Hunters Point. This new library will provide state of the art library services to the community, as well as offer a space for community programming.

The new Queens Library is sited with spectacular views over the East River and major landmarks, such as the UN Building and the Roosevelt Memorial by Louis I. Kahn under construction on Roosevelt Island. It will function as a connector between waterfront activities and the city beyond. With residential buildings, three acres of new park land and public schools as neighbors, the library will serve as a new "urban forum" and an invaluable resource for the community. The new Library will shape public space and create new connections across the Queens West Development, Hunter Points South, and the existing neighborhood of Hunters Point.

Tom Galante, Chief Executive Officer for the Queens Library, said, "Queens Library at Hunters Point will be a great resource for the whole community. We are looking forward to working with Steven Holl Architects to see a truly special library built on this site."

In addition to the stacks, the new library will house reading areas, a gallery, public assembly multi-purpose meeting room for community programming including after-school study, readings, and various locally based events, and associated library staff and support areas. The project scope also includes the design of a separate structure to accommodate the users and staff of the adjacent Gantry Plaza State Park, to be located on the same site.

"This library will be a beacon for the Queens Library system and a cultural center for this growing and dynamic neighborhood" said David J. Burney, Commissioner of the Department of Design and Construction, which is managing the project. "Steven Holl Architects deliver dramatic architecture and innovative responses to complex client programs, and has proven to be adept at creating iconic buildings that respond to their site, culture, and history. This will be Steven Holl’s first public New York City commission, and we are looking forward to working with him on this exciting project."

Steven Holl states, "We are very pleased with this great commission for an addition to the growing community. We envision a building hovering and porous, open to the public park. A luminous form of opportunity for knowledge, standing on its own reflection in the east river."
Bustler

Davis Brody Bond Aedas | Benning Library | Washington DC, USA

Benning Library is located on a sloped site along Benning Road, N.E. The building is terraced into the terrain allowing access from both Benning Road at the upper level and from a commercial shopping area at the lower level. The two floors of the facility are connected by a public stair inside the building, creating a space which encourages pedestrian circulation through the library in order to connect one street elevation to another. Benning Library utilizes a warm color palette of earth tones and a copper panel facade to complement its residential setting. Approximately 315 copper panels chosen for the exterior reflect the sun and provide a warm glow in the late afternoon.
More....

SANAA | Rolex Learning Center | Lausanne, Switzerland

The Rolex Learning Center is above all a library and learning space devoted to the cultivation of knowledge by an array of different methods. It has one of the largest collections of scientific literature in Europe, with over 500,000 volumes. In addition, an exciting range of new pedagogical technologies in the building, as well as the layout itself, are innovations to the public’s approach to texts and learning.

Located centrally on the EPFL campus, and its new hub, the building is essentially one continuous structure spread over the site. The building is rectangular in plan, but appears to be more organic in shape because of the way that its roof and floor undulate gently, always in parallel. With few visible supports, the building touches the ground lightly, leaving an expanse of open space beneath, which draws people from all sides towards a central entrance.

The most audacious aspect of the new library is its lack of physical boundaries. The large open space is defined by its artificial geography. It groups silent and calm zones along its hills and slopes, rather than offering traditional cloistered study rooms. As well as providing social areas and an impressive auditorium, the building lends itself to the establishment of quiet zones and silent zones, acoustically separated areas created through changes in height.

The slopes, valleys and plateaus within the building, as well as the shapes made by the patios, all contribute to these barrier-free delineations of space. In addition, clusters of glazed or walled “bubbles” make small enclosures for small groups to meet or work together in.

Inside, the hills, valleys and plateaus formed by the undulation often make the edges of the building invisible, though there are no visual barriers between one area and the next. Instead of steps and staircases, there are gentle slopes and terraces.

Clearly, but without dividing walls, one area of activity gives way to another. Visitors stroll up the gentle curves, or perhaps move around the space on one of the specially designed “horizontal lifts,” elegant glass boxes, whose engineering is adapted from everyday lift design.

The topography lends an extraordinary fluidity to the building’s flexible open plan – a flow that is emphasized by fourteen voids in the structure, of varying dimensions. These are glazed and create a series of softly rounded external ‘patios’, as the architects describe them. The patios are social spaces and provide a visual link between the inside and the outside. They are very much part of the building.

“We did not make a normal one-room space but incorporated patios and topography to organize the program such that each is separated and connected at the same time. The large one-room space undulates up and down creating an open space under the building so that people can walk to the center of the building. This enabled us to make one main entrance at the center of the building.”
SANAA

The Rolex Learning Center is a highly energy-efficient building which, for its low energy consumption, has received the coveted Minergie label – the standard used in Switzerland for measuring environmental excellence in buildings.

More here

International Architectural Competition | National Library Kazakhstan | Astana,Kazakhstan | BIG

Invited as one of five pre-selected architect led teams, BIG was awarded first prize in an open international design competition which included 19 entrants among others Lord Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid.
The new National Library, named after the first President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, encompasses an estimated 33.000m2. The winning proposal was chosen by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan K. Masimov together with Astana's akim I.Tasmagambetov and a council of architects.
Images here

The Source Arts Centre and Library | Tipperary, Ireland | Mccullough Mulvin

Thurles Art Centre and Library stands on a critical site in the centre of Thurles, Co. Tipperary beside the town bridge which leads into the triangular-shaped Liberty Square. On the opposite bank is one of the medieval tower houses which give the town its strong character. The scheme incorporates a new library, an art centre and a 240 seat theatre in one building; each function is expressed as a volume under an undulating roof open towards the river onto a generous boardwalk. The building’s geometries arise out of its very particular location, crouched like a cat at the medieval gate of Thurles and stretched around a bend in the river Suir. A folded roof encloses very different volumes, rising and falling like a small mountain range from a strong base; two storeys of library and research space are coupled to the high volume of the auditorium by the lower entrance and arts space. Folded between these peaks

of activity is an upper terrace, focus of daytime community activity and an evening bar/café. In plan the building is similarly cranked, each zone mapped into trapezoidal volumes which master the bend of the river. In the library, a deep cut in the ceiling plane right through the research floor brings light and air to the centre of the plan. The exhibition space has a similar rooflight sitting across the upper terrace, giving unexpected views of the work on exhibition below. Shielded behind the monolithic concrete entrance wall, the introverted, reflective, exhibition space can be glimpsed through a porthole when arriving, or alternatively closed off for hanging. The theatre foyer is similarly a compressed volume – vertical this time – caught between auditorium and boardwalk. Large glass doors slide back to open the café and foyer to the boardwalk, and from the upper foyer the audience expands out on to the upper terrace overlooking the town.

Text and images from :Mccullough Mulvin

The Knut Hamsun Center | Norway | Steven Holl

More images here

Studio: Steven Holl Architects

Staff:
Noah Yaffe (associate in charge - construction documents)
Francesco Bartolozzi
I Wisecarver (project team - construction documents)
Erik Fenstad Langdalen (project architect - design development)
Gabriela Barman-Kraemer
Yoh Hanaoka
Justin Korhammer
Anna Müller
Audra Tuskes (project team - design development)

Project Type: Multi-function Cultural Center,Museums ,Libraries

Client: Nordland Fylkeskommune (County)

Design: 1994

completion: 2008 | 2009

Link: www.stevenholl.com

Project Description:
The building will rise around Presteid - Joint Hamarøy - in that once welcomed the estate which housed long Hamsun. The new center will host exhibition areas, a library, reading room, a café and an auditorium.

The structure is designed as a "compression of the spirit in archetypal space and light."
"Building as a body ground battle invisible forces" the principle that inspired the design of the museum.

A rooftop garden composed of long strings of grass intends to evoke the traditional Norwegian roofs covered with turf, however, revised in a modern way. While the facade in dark wood reminds the big horizontal slats of wood typical of Norwegian churches.
The rough concrete interior walls are white with diagonal ray of light whose projection changes during the different periods of the year.

The Knut Hamsun Center won in 1996 the Progressive Archietcture Award. The model of the project was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art.

Nardoni Library | Prague,Czech Republic | HSH Architekti

2007
3rd place in the architectural competition.
authors: Peter Burian, Petr Hajek, Tomas Hradečná, Jan Šépka
cooperation: Lukas Zimandl

We are at a time when humanity is taught to read genome a number of organisms, including their own. We know the hereditary information that is contained in each one of our cell. The inspiration of our proposal is due to become the organization and logical structure of cells. The main core of the entire building is the depositary with preserving the Fund. The huge cylinder filled with library funds are managed from offices and workshops, which are strung on the cylinder as a ring. 'National Treasure' finds itself in the very heart of the building. The next layer are the areas accessible to the public. This spatial stratification may well operate in the staff offices with the entire contents of the depositary, as well as the public part. The entire area is wrapped and protected by transparent plastic (cell membrane), which is part of the exterior coating. Transparent coat the entire area libraries naturally light, moreover, in place of the southern gallery offers a view of the panorama of Prague Castle. A transparent dome creates the atmosphere of the temple on the books.
Images from: HSH Architekti
Original text from HSH translated by Design Ideas

Library in Luckenwalde Railway Station | Luckenwalde, Germany | ff architekten + Martina Wronna

Architect: ff + architekten Martina Wronna
Staff: Sylvia Brock,Radoslaw Jozwiak,Burkhard Köhler,Hannah von Knobelsdorff ,Kristin Weber
Project Type: Libraries
Client: City of Luckenwalde
Design: 2009
Project Description:
The disused building for railway passengers in Luckenwalde has been renovated to house the public city library. The project includes the addition of a new building to the complex to house library services for children and young people. As a central public facility, the library has the potential to stabilize the structurally weak surroundings of the railway station and to help forge a new identity for the area. As a consequence, the aim of this urban planning project includes ensuring that the significance of this railway station conversion is clearly expressed.

The listed railway building is being supplemented with a rectangular shaped annex tilted along two axes that has the effect of repositioning the railway building in its urban context. The striking facade design with its shimmering golden, imbricated surface underscores the accentuation of the structure in urban-planning terms. The interior of the annex presents children and young people with a series of spaces shaped to accord with the needs and desires of the library's younger users.

The renovation of the listed building stock aims to do justice to the particular atmospheres of the individual rooms with their historical materials, colors and surfaces, and to use a consistent color and furnishing concept to link heterogeneous structures into a spatial continuum.
Text and images from: Archiportale