What is furniture for?

In this article I endeavour to investigate the trends driving library and learning spaces forward from a furniture designer's perspective and explore how furniture may evolve to facilitate this journey.

The advance of technology has led us all a merry dance over the last 30 years. In 1983 I rang people on my telephone – it is now 2013 and my smart phone sits on the desk beside me. On last count this clever, potent machine has replaced no fewer than 45 products and services in my life. Irrefutably, technology's rapid rate of change promises to influence the furniture used in library and learning spaces dramatically.

Let us focus on the furniture we currently use and consider where this may lead in the coming generation. To put our investigation in context let us underpin it with three simple ideas:

Staff versus the machine

Recent surveys indicate that for many library users interaction with staff remains an important component of their library visit.1 Apart from offering practical assistance librarians are people helping people and providing important social context – there is no replacement for a welcoming smile. Though libraries will undergo continuing automation staff–user interaction will remain an important part of library life and furniture will continue to be needed to support this.

Front of house minimized

We are in the midst of a general trend to break down the barriers in search of enhanced customer experience. This has been supported by the move to customer self-service models, including issues, returns and reservations, which make the old-style circulation counter (I call them fortresses) increasingly redundant.