MBTA and the library

i was at the BPL recently and took some photos of the Copley T-Stop for those of you using the Parcel 13 site. its a little inspiration for your projects as you think of how to incorporate the existing/closed T-Stop into your designs.

Collage Review

Thank all of you for your comments last studio.  You gave me some great ideas (“great” as in, “Great, that’s just more to think about!”).  But seriously, I appreciate the feedback and am excited by everyone’s projects.  Since Evangelos mentioned that we should post our work each week, I thought I would post my collages.  I hope to build on these main concepts, but since we are focusing this week on structure, I will have to let these ideas percolate.  I would like to use this as a chance to record a few concepts that inform my atmospheric collages: 

Search & Display:  The future of information holds new ways on not only collecting data, but displaying it as well.  A future library will need space to display data, real time, as it is collected and produced.  Imagine downloading a group of statistics on a research subject; the future library could not only display that information, but allow you to manipulate it, sort it, and/or edit it without a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen.  This will require a new kind type of library space.

Interactive “Floor-Light”: This feature is site-specific, considering the building’s proposed situation over a major sub-surface roadway.  The inverse of the “skylight”, the floor-light opens a window to an urban reality, while gathering the trace light and reflections (and noises) of an urban element which typically belongs “outside” of the building.  In addition, this glazed surface can be augmented with an interactive display which shows useful data (route-finding, entertainment, query services). 

Street Book Wall:  The street-oriented book wall is a strategy which speaks to a need to increase access to public information.  By turning the library inside-out, the print collection is literally made public, a gesture which makes this new library a progressive alternative to tradition (consider the opaque and introverted condition of the Boston Public Library).  Transporting “book sushi,” the book wall moves its cargo at the pace of the pedestrian, bringing the book back to the street.

Self-Organizing Corral:  With new RFID technology and personal mobile devices, the need for antiquated cataloging and sorting systems is being replaced with decentralized, efficient book tracking methods.  The self-organizing corrals are organisms with the program which collect people and books who, theoretically, sort themselves over time.  In others words, when technology allows the book to live anywhere, the users themselves will organize the collection.  The corrals, based on the types of books they have collected, will reveal how our culture intuitively sorts media.

Open Screening Room:  The library must remain a social node in the community, and as our tastes for information delivery evolve, so does our need to share in its consumption.  The screening room represents public information on a large scale and , as it turns out, is a traditional role of the library.  Along with the screening room (which is itself a borderless area within the library), other diverse program elements can be included, e.g.: a bowling lane, a bike path, a moving sidewalk, or a basketball court.  (Thanks to you studio geniuses for those great ideas!)

solar exposure studies

i did new solar exposure studies with the time/dates that EK suggested, and found that the exposure is better then i thought. these studies effect the street level public space and will not have an impact on the upper level rooftop deck where i have imagined the seasonal public market to be.
p.s. i did not mean for them to look like loteria cards, but i sort of love that they do!

Potential Form

Here it is. My first movie. I think I might do a romcom next.

Video and Copyright

In the interest of designing a digital library to try to resolve the conflict between multimedia and credible information, I couldn't help but get hung up on the fact that the Cambridge library circulates DVDs of new releases, etc much like a Blockbuster store. I realize it's a "browsing" library but I couldn't get passed the idea of a library as a video rental store. Anyway, in milling around looking for info regarding DVDs and libraries, I found some guidelines on the ALA site. It's really not very exciting but the issues with use and copyrights is kind of interesting...

http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet07.cfm

15 Dazzling Library Designs

I also found this recently: http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/10/clever-creative-modern-library-architecture-designs/.

Good inspiration for cool library designs, including many of our precedents and the JFK Presidential library at Columbia Point here in Boston.

Library Types

Hi Everyone,

After our tour yesterday I have been thinking more about what type of library I want to create. Although I think mine will inevitably be a hybrid of different kinds (such as a medical and scientific library with some interactive elements, like a museum, thrown in), it was interesting to do some research on more "official" types of libraries. Like most of you, I have heard of different types but never given it much thought, especially in the public realm- research vs. browsing, etc.

So I looked around and found one of the most comprehensive lists on Wikipedia (sorry, but useful): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Types_of_libraries. The list is pretty exhaustive and the bibliographic links are very helpful. I also found the ALA, American Library Association, which I'm sure some of you are aware of but I am just finding. I recommend checking out their entire site; I'm sure it can be useful for all of us, no matter what direction we're going in, but they, too, have a list of different types: http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/careers/librarycareerssite/typesoflibraries.cfm.
Note that its in reference to library careers, which (predictably) are facing major cutbacks in this digital age. Hope that's helpful!