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Libraries are the guardians of our culture, heritage and knowledge. As one of the most important civic spaces in our cities, their status has often been expressed through imposing, sometimes extravagant, architecture. While Alexandria's mythical library was only open to a few select scholars, today's institutions are open to all kinds of crowds and are embracing a completely new role in our society, which is visible through architecture.
Calgary Central Library
In the middle of the Canadian prairies, Calgary is growing at an unprecedented rate. The influx of new inhabitants is resulting in a brand new neighbourhood rising immediately east of the downtown area. Conceived as an integral part of the emerging East Village that will be home to 11,000 residents by 2027, the new $245-million CAD Calgary Central Library will house approximately 600,000 books once completed in 2018. Designed by Snøhetta and DIALOG, the glass and wood-clad building will provide 240,000 square feet of usable library space.
The particularity of this building is its location immediately atop an LRT line. To accommodate this, a 150-metre stretch of the still-in-service C-Train line was encapsulated to further allow the new library to wrap around it. This particularity visibly impacted the elevated design of the oval-shaped building, and allows for a framed wood-cladded arched entry at the end of a large flight of stairs; a reference to Alberta's chinook arch cloud formations. The interiors will provide visitors with a mix of open and intimate, study-focused spaces defined by the varying opacity of the facade's fritted-glass, with wood at the centre of the design.
Halifax Central Library
Boosted by a population of more than 30,000 students who make up about 10% of the city's total population, Halifax identified the need for a new central library several decades ago. It was only in 2008 that the regional council of Atlantic Canada's largest town approved the plan for the new five-storey, 11,000-square-metre structure. Local architects Fowler Bauld and Mitchell partnered with Danish firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen to design the building that now welcomes around 6,000 visitors per day. Opened in 2014, the Halifax Central Library not only features work spaces, but also cafes, an auditorium and community rooms.
Covered in glass to provide visitors with lots of natural light and a visual connection to the surrounding urban context, the interior spaces are organized around a central atrium acting as a light well, thanks to an expansive glass roof, that is criss-crossed by staircases leading to the different sections of the library. The cantilevered top floor and its rooftop terrace both offer a broad view of the city and the harbour. The building won a Lieutenant Governor’s Design Award in Architecture in 2014 and, in June 2015 it was shortlisted for the World Building of the Year Award, to be presented at the 2015 World Architecture Festival in Singapore this November.
Seattle Public Library
Opened to the public a little more than a decade ago, the Seattle Public Library was conceived by Dutch firm OMA in partnership with Seattle-based LMN Architects. Designed to be a celebration of books resisting the digital age, the 33,722-square-metre building has the capacity to hold approximately 1.45 million of them. Located on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle, the library is composed of a steel skeleton holding platforms that appear to float and are wrapped in glass, creating a strong feeling of openness to the city while remaining inviting to the public.
According to the architects, the spatial and programmatic needs of the building dictated its exterior look, which resulted in a strong visual identity and presence on the local streetscape. Inside, the curated work spaces are punctuated by artwork-like spaces such as the famous red hallway and the bright yellow escalators. The $169-million building welcomes an average of 2 million visitors a year, 30% of whom are out-of-towners. The status of the library as a popular tourist spot generated $16 million in new revenue during its first year of operation, and continues to attract many visitors today thanks to daily architectural tours.
National French Library
Paris has long been the cultural centre of France and, as a result, is home to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (National French Library), the repository of all documents published in France. While the institution is spread across several sites, the flagship building is located in the Tolbiac neighbourhood of Paris and bears the name of its creator, Francois Mitterrand, former president of the Republic. Designed by architect Dominique Perrault and inaugurated in 1996, it is composed of four 79-metre towers symbolizing open books that are known as the Tower of Times, the Tower of Laws, the Tower of Numbers and the Tower of Letters, which are organized around a 12,000-square-metre garden.
The design is one of the largest expressions of the architectural style known as minimalism, which was popular in Europe during the late 1990s. The quality and simplicity of its interiors, with furniture designed by the architect himself, have contributed to the building's reputation, which earned it the prestigious European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 1996. In total, more than 13,300,000 documents are stored on this site, on over 385 kilometres of shelving.
Many other libraries around the world are celebrating both books and architecture just as much as those listed above. Let us know what you think about these projects, and leave a comment at the bottom of this page!
