Post 4 - Royal Danish Library

The Royal Library
National Library of Denmark and Copenhagen University Library




 Søren Kierkegaards Plads 1
Copenhagen
DENMARK
tel +45 3347 4747 / kultur@kb.dk
 

Known as the “Black Diamond”, the The Royal library is housed in a huge building made of black marble and glass.It is actually part of Copenhagen university and the building contains many other cultural activities such as music, theatre and a museum. For me it is a draw card to have so many cultural activities including a library in one building. Construction began in 1995 and finished in 1999. With 7 floors and 20,733 square metres, this neo modern building struck me as very solid, like a monolith when I first saw a picture of it, and it reminded me slightly of the National Gallery of Victoria in its timeless solidness.In the picture below, it almost seems to be floating on the river!

Source: Wikicommons

However, being located on the edge of a river in the heart of Copenhagen, there is spectacular reflection of  light at different times of the day, as shown in this short video,

                                                   Copenhagen Library source : Youtube

Designed by Schmidt, Hammer and Lasen architects, this is one of their most well known buildings, although they have designed a large number of buildings and have a huge number of projects on now. One aspect that their work has in common is a 'democratic approach to an architecture which can accommodate modern, open and multifunctional meeting-places'. Even though I did extensive searches on Swinburne databases I could find very little information specifically about the library. There are quite a few journal articles on the architects, but not relating to the building.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Designed by Per Kirkeby, this Fresko (without a name), is a huge 210 square meters and is situated at the entrance to the lending library. Taking more than a year to complete, the internationally renowned artist is known for his colourful compositions and had an exhibition at the Tate modern gallery in London in 2009.



Source: Wikimedia Commons



References:

E-architect, 'Sort Diamand, Copenhagen, Denmark : Information', viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.e-architect.co.uk/copenhagen/sort_diamant_copenhagen.htm>.


Labalme, C 1999, 'Travel Advisory; A Diamond for Denmark's Library', the new york times, 17 October 1999, Academic Onefile, viewed 9 June 2012.


ArcSpace, 'schmidt hammer lassen K/S The Black Diamond The Royal Library Extension Copenhagen, Denmark', viewed 8 June 2012, <http:/www.arcspace.com/architects/schmidt_hammer_lassen/royal_lib/index.html>.

E-architect, 'Sort Diamand, Copenhagen, Denmark : Information', viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.e-architect.co.uk/copenhagen/sort_diamant_copenhagen.htm.>.

Black Diamond 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Diamond_(library))>.

Royal Danish Library 2012,Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/kirkeby>.

Per Kireby 2012, Wikipedia viewed 8 June 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per_Kirkeby>.

Copenhagen Library...Sundappled 2011, viewed 8 June 2012,< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09lXl1Zxw74>.

 

 

 

Post 3 Seatle central libary

Seattle Central Library

Central Library
1000 Fourth Ave.
Seattle, WA 98104
206-386-4636

For my second library, I chose the Seatle central central library. Without having done much research into it, the pictures of it seemed interesting and it  had won architectural awards, was hailed as the "the most important new library to be built in a generation, and the most exhilirating". It became evident fairly quickly that you can read a lot about a place and see footage and pictures, but in the end one has to truly experience it in person to see what impact it has. I did find contradictory assessments of this library the more research I did, but from what I have seen, it is still a place I would like to visit.

Designed by the Dutch born, Harvard professor Rem Koolhaas and American born founder of  REX  Joshua Prince-Ramus, this open spaced library is full of light and has quickly become an icon in Seattle and tourist destination too, when it opened in 2004. An impressive 152 out of 167 people on trip advisor rated the library as "excellent" or "good" as a place to visit (when viewed in June 2012). A year after the library opened in 2004, it was visited by 2.3 million people and 30% of them were from out of town. At 11 levels and 56 metres high, the capacity to hold up to 1.4 million books and a huge area of over 32,000 square metres.

Part of the grand idea for the library was to create "living" spaces, inviting areas where people can relax as seen this photo.

Source: Jeffwilcox on Flickr

The library has a spiral stair case that goes for 4 floors and contains the entire dewey system. It can accomodate changing collection sizes. This amateur footage is a bit jerky, but shows someone going up the escalators from the ground floor and the collection can be seen.

                                                       Seattle Library source Youtube
                                                   






There is a very informative TED talk given by Joshua Prince-Ramus on the reasons behind the design and what they wanted to achieve. Because the needs to change over how space is used, the library is built in compartments with some areas having more flexibitily than others. The librarians weren't convinced at first about the plans, but according to Prince-Ramus they were very happy with the result! The first 10 minutes of the talk is about the library and worth the time to listen to!

                                               Joshua Prince-Ramus source: TED talks                
                                               

Finally a photo of the outside or the "Skin" of the building. The building is an unusual shape and divided people. I think at first I would like it, but after a while I might find it a bit grating to look at. A little like some angles of Federation Sqaure in Melbourne.




Source : Wikipedia

In fact, the layout of this building can actually be anxiety inducing according a study published in the journal "current directions in psychological science". After an extensive search on the swinburne library catalogue and journals, that was the only article I could find that directly addressed the psychological affects of the building on patrons.

Perhaps a more grounding object associated with the library is this fountain at the front of the library is by George Tsutakawa a seatle born sculptor who spent a lot of time in Japan. Placed at the front of the library, I thought it was an inspiring piece of sculpure,




picture by Mary Ann Sullivan

I have found the create commons site a good place to find usable pictures for this blog and the google search engine has yielded many useful results, although I have tried other search engines like exalead and dogpile and iseek. Google scholar has been very useful in finding journal articles, however university accessible databases like EBSCO has increased my searching scope.

References:

 Alessandroi A & De Cindi F 2008, 'Augmented Urban Spaces: Articulating the Physical and Electronic City' Ashgate Publishing, EBL Ebook Library, viewed 8 June 2012.

Seattle public library 2009, Seattle Public Library, 13 March, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp11MtnWmUo&feature=related>

Carlson LA, Hölscher C, Shipley TF and Dalton RC 2010, 'Getting Lost in Buildings', Current Directions in Psychological Science, vol. 19, no.5, pp. 284-289, SAGE premier, viewed 8 June 2012.

Seattle Central Library 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Central_Library>.

Rem Koolhaas 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rem_Koolhaas>.

Joshua Prince-Ramus 2012, Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Prince-Ramus>.

Rahner, M 2008, 'Talking with Rem Koolhaas, the architect behind the Central Library', The Seatle Times, 9 September 2008, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008167399_remkoolhaas09.html>



Sullivan, M 2011, 'George Tsutakawa Fountain at the Downtown Seattle Public Library', Councelor@law,v iewed 8 June 2012 <http://www.wac6.com/wac6/2011/06/george-tsutakawa-fountain-at-the-downtown-seattle-public-library.html>

Rex ny 2012,Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.rex-ny.com/work/seattle-library/>.

Seattle Public Library 2012, Trip advisor,Wikipedia, viewed 8 June 2012, <http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g60878-d558679-Reviews-Seattle_Public_Library-Seattle_Washington.html>


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008167399_remkoolhaas09.html







.

Post 2 - Musashino Art University Museum & Library

Musashino Art University Museum & Library


 Musashino Art University Museum and Library
1-736 Ogawa-machi, Kodaira, Tokyo 〒 187-8505

The first library I chose is the Musashino Art University Museum & Library, university campus located in Toyko, Japan. Built in 2010, it is the final renovation of the original 1962 building, which has been completely transformed by the vision of the Japanese award winning architect Sou Fujimoto.

It is essentially a building made up of bookshelves from the inside and the outside. A glass shell (0.3 inches thick) encasing wooden bookshelves 28 feet high. There are three storeys, and the first floor consists of a long, spiral shaped bookcase which is wrapped around the edege. It is an incredible design, and unfortunately I couldn't find any pictures to post that were not in copyright. But the layout of the bookshelves follow this similar pattern

Source: Penelope Else from FlickR

There is plenty of room downstair for people to sit and the books are all very accessible. At 69,000 square feet, the library can hold up to 300,000 books.

For some great pictures of the library, click on this link.

The upstairs also has large bookshelves the curve around the perimeter, where in the middle there is the reference desk and plenty of areas where people can sit. While there are computers and private study carols and meeting rooms, the dominant objects within the visual field are large bookshelves. Hence, the book is still the dominant feature of the library, compared to the computer.

This building is also very striking from the outside, and seeing a huge bookcase through class, that wraps around the outside, immediately identifies the building as a library. In fact, it can be seen all around the campus. The spiral shape draws one towards something, perhaps knowledge? imagination? ideas?

I found this great interview with Sou Fujimoto talking about what he was trying to achieve in his design and his thoughts on the library. Being a vimeo video, blogger didn't allow me to upload it here. But to view the video, simply click on this link  http://vimeo.com/21702196#t=12


Sou Fujimoto talks about designing a library in the age of information.He sees the starting point of architecture as beginning with the fact that people have a body and feelings, where as information has no physical space. So the challenge is to merge the feelings that one might experience for example when using the internet for example, with that of the physical environment. 

He also uses a “forest of books” concept. In using the analogy of a forest to describe how he sees architecture – the forest contains so many different elements, that one might be only aware of 10% of what is going on when one strolls through it. The animals and creatures that inhabit it all have their own perception of what is going on. Information technology, such as using the internet would be one component of this “forest’.

The use of light is very important and soft light shines down through translucent white polycarbonate.

There is a lot of timber in the library, which is reminiscent of trees in a forest. From the pictures and descriptions, I love the openness of the space, and the sense of continual growth and change invoked by the empty shelving. Having so much space for more books (even though much of it would never be used due to lack of accessibility and load-bearing ability) reminds one that there is always more knowledge, books and information to be created. The empty box like shaped shelving, are like books, in the sense that a book is a finite physical object that can be handled and categorized and understood . It is a manageable chunk of human reality. When looking around this library, these empty boxes open up a space for one to imagine something to fill the spaces. I read later in Tanaka's article that Fujitso himself said that they "hint at the infinite expansion of information into realms that transcend the medium of the book".  I think fostering a sense of imagination in a library is wonderful, and though knowledge is critically important, and libraries are a storehouse of knowledge, I am reminded of what Albert Einstein once said the imagination is more important than knowledge!

Sou Fujimoto also wanted to create a great spiral bookshelf which wraps around the outside of the library. I think it’s a brilliant concept which immediately identifies the building as a library. 

As I indicated, I couldn't post any pics due to copyright, but it is very easy to find some pictures of the library simply through Google images. However there were still surprisingly few pictures available through sites like Google, Flickr and nothing through the creative commons sites. There were only a few good articles through the Swinburne library databases and Google scholar. I also used iseek

References:

Arch Daily 2011, Musashino Art University Museum & Library / Sou Fujimoto, Arch Daily, viewed 2 June 2012, http://www.archdaily.com/145789/musashino-art-university-museum-library-sou-fujimoto/

College of Art and Design 2012, Musashino University, viewed 2 June 2012, <http://mauml.musabi.ac.jp/>

Gregory, R 2010, '165 Musashino Art University Library. (Sou Fujimoto Architects)', The Architectural Review, vol. 228, no. 228, pp. 42, Gale Cengate, viewed 2 June 2012.

Pollock, N 2011, Musashino Art University Museum & Library, Architectural Record, viewed 2 June 2012, http://archrecord.construction.com/projects/building_types_study/libraries/2011/musashino.asp

Sou Fujimoto 2012, Architects, viewed 2 June 2012, <http://www.sou-fujimoto.net/>

Sou Fujimoto, on designing a library on the age of information 2012, Archdaily, viewed 2 June, <http://vimeo.com/21702196#t=12>

Tanaka, J 2010, Spiral of Life: The Musashino Art University Museum & Library Academia edu, viewed 2 June 2012, http://utokyo.academia.edu/JunTanaka/Papers/373615/Spiral_of_Life_The_Musashino_Art_University_Museum_and_Library

Spiral Fossil 2009, Penelope Else, viewed 11 June, 2012<http://www.flickr.com/photos/55922608@N00/3781109890/>

http://www.dezeen.com/2011/05/12/musashino-art-university-libraryby-sou-fujimoto-architects/#more-127893

Musashino Art University Library by Sou Fujimoto Architects 2011, De Zeen magazine, viewed 11 June 2012, <http://www.dezeen.com/2011/05/12/musashino-art-university-libraryby-sou-fujimoto-architects/#more-127893>

Introduction

Six architectually inspiring libraries from the world!!!

"From early on I have suspected that the so important sounding task "know thyself" is a ruse of a cabal of priests. They are trying to seduce man [woman] from activity in the outside world, to distract him with the impossible demands; they seek to draw him into a false inner contemplation. Man only knows himself as he knows the world- the world which he only comes to know in himself and himself only in it"
                                                                                                                                         - Goethe




Given the current trend towards accessing information (including e-books) over the internet, among the reasons to visit a physical library is to locate oneself in a building (and perhaps in the spirit of Goethe, to be still connected to the "outside" world). This blog is about libraries as physical spaces that can inspire people to visit a library and provide an enjoyable and creative space in which one can read and access information. I have selected 5 libraries that currently exist in the world and hope to inspire people to visit them. The buildings were selected principally for their architecture and I also wanted to get a selection from different countries.  I sort inspiration from researching different libraries on the internet, looking at architecture websites, blogs and articles and selected five libraries that seemed appealing.

The five libraries I have selected are:

Musashino Art University Museum & Library

Seatle Library

Royal Danish Library

National Library of Belarus

Geisel Library

With each library, I intend to give a description of the building, find information on the architect and what they intended to achieve through their design, choose an interesting aspect of the building and elaborate on that, provide some thoughts about my own reaction to the building and perhaps add additional information that seems relevant.

Being based in Melbourne, unfortunately I won’t be able to visit any of the libraries and intend to do all research over the internet. Using resources through the Swinburne library, I will access journal articles and relevant books. I will also do basic internet searches using Google and Wikipedia and also hope to locate images through sites such as FLICR and google images. I also hope to find video footage through youtube or vimeo.