Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Lists of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and technical terms
- 1 Introduction
- 2 21st-century libraries
- 3 Developing a business case
- 4 Project management
- 5 The design/project team
- 6 Selecting an architect
- 7 Partnership and community engagement
- 8 The design brief
- 9 Design quality
- 10 Space planning and access
- 11 Occupancy and post-occupancy evaluation
- 12 Building libraries for the future – a summary
- Bibliography and further reading
- Appendices
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Lists of figures and tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations and technical terms
- 1 Introduction
- 2 21st-century libraries
- 3 Developing a business case
- 4 Project management
- 5 The design/project team
- 6 Selecting an architect
- 7 Partnership and community engagement
- 8 The design brief
- 9 Design quality
- 10 Space planning and access
- 11 Occupancy and post-occupancy evaluation
- 12 Building libraries for the future – a summary
- Bibliography and further reading
- Appendices
- Index
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
In the 21st century, library planners and architects have an opportunity to create new facilities designed for a new audience. It is important to consider the forces that are changing library design and how these changes can be accommodated. This chapter considers some of the recent trends in library design, and issues to consider when planning a library for the 21st century.
[A library is] at once a school, a home, a workplace, a church, a theatre and many other things besides.
(Francine Houben, 2002, quoted in Latimer and Niegaard, 2007, 69)
Recent library developments
Towards the end of the 20th century there was a significant increase in the number of new and refurbished library buildings, including public, national and academic libraries. Some notable examples include:
■ public libraries in Peckham, London (architects: Alsop and Störmer), in Brighton (LCE architects) and Vancouver, Canada (architect: Moshe Safdie)
■ the Bibliothèque Nationale national library in Paris (architect: Dominique Parrault)
■ the Thames Valley University library, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership and the Squire Law Library, University of Cambridge (architect: Foster and Partners).
The three main reasons for the revival of interest in library buildings at this time were:
■ new media technologies leading to a re-assessment of the role of libraries in a digital age
■ other cultural buildings, particularly museums and art galleries, being seen as worthy of interest in their own right as buildings, rather than merely for the collections they contain
■ the expansion of higher education worldwide with academic libraries having to change their role to support new methods of teaching and learning.
The main factors leading to change in the design of library buildings are:
■ libraries as a statement of a knowledge-driven society
■ new information technology especially electronic data collections
■ a greater community and educational role for libraries
■ the expansion in higher education and growth in life-long learning
■ the impact of popular culture on libraries
■ the increasing importance of library buildings as visitor attractions.
Changes to the storage and dissemination of knowledge may alter the form and content of libraries but they have never made the library redundant, despite predictions to this effect.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Better by Designan introduction to planning and designing a new library building, pp. 5 - 18Publisher: FacetPrint publication year: 2008