Intro

Andreas Gursky, "Library," 1999

The Library embodies one of the last true public and open institutions in cities today. At the same time, as new media and technologies redefine traditional modes of learning, books tend to become an “old kind of software”. As information is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and available even in the most remote places, the role of the library is radically shifting from that of a physical depository of books into an informative, flexible platform that can provide other, new services for the promotion of knowledge but also fun. With or without books, libraries are gradually turning into reconfigurable places of gathering whose main activities aspire to be embedded into the local communities which they serve.

The experimental nature of this studio will explore these new possibilities through the design of a medium-sized library as an architectural device able to host a variety of new learning activities and events. By viewing the library as an urban piece of “upgradeable hardware”, we will essentially determine the types of future “software” it will be able to host. In doing so, we will study the synergies created by the juxtaposition of different programmatic and spatial configurations in order to synthesize an integrated, multi-functional, gathering environment.

Etienne-Louis Boullée, “Deuxième projet pour la Bibliothèque du Roi”, 1785