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Presence, Permeability and Playfulness
CHAPTER 16
Presence, Permeability and Playfulness: Future Library Architecture in the Digital Era Charlie Smith
INTRODUCTION Libraries are under pressure; many have closed and others face an uncertain future. The number of public libraries in the UK fell by 347 in 2012 (Lumb, 2013), and in 2014 another 61 were withdrawn from service (Kennedy, 2014). Over the last eight years visitors to public libraries in the UK dropped by a quarter (DCMS, 2013). The American Library Association reports that while the use of library materials has increased in the US in recent times, physical visits have declined (Farley, 2014). A frequent explanation for this decline is digitisation. The Internet has been in common use for two decades so it is a pertinent time to reflect on how the digital world has affected libraries and to consider the future of library design. Debate continues to rage about whether libraries are needed in an increasingly digital era where millions of books can be accessed via the Internet and an entire library can be carried in one hand. As more books, newspapers and journals become digitised, and our culture becomes increasingly digitally orientated, how will people choose to read and study? Gomez (2008) contends that the need for printed media is inexorably disappearing. Others propose that the future is one in which digitisation complements rather than supersedes physical books (DuttaBergman, 2004). Despite suggestions that digitisation will mean that the library as a special place will disappear, Edwards (2009) argues that this view fails to acknowledge the symbolic domain of the library. There are issues which are perhaps overlooked in a black-and-white debate over digital versus physical books. Firstly, not all physical information is available in digital format. Secondly, libraries play a much more complex role than merely providing a repository for shelves of books. We do not Digital Information Strategies. © 2016 Charlie Smith. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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know for certain what the roles of physical books and libraries will be in the future, but where might library design fall in the spectrum between the physical space of buildings and the virtual space of digitisation? This chapter discusses both how digital media is influencing the design of libraries changing the way users occupy spaces within them and the role libraries play as cultural buildings. It proposes a manifesto for future library architecture in the context of three characteristics: presence, permeability and playfulness. While the plethora of recent closures is alarming, exemplary and inspiring libraries have opened in recent years. These include the National Library of China (2008), the Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne (2010), the Hive in Worcester (2012), the Spijkenisse Book Mountain in the Netherlands (2012), the Library of Birmingham (2013), the Liverpool Central Library (2013) and Manchester’s Central Library (2014). In the course of this chapter trends in recent library architecture will be explored and evaluated. Final-year undergraduate students on the Architecture course at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have been exploring the design of libraries. Between 2009 and 2013 they designed their interpretations of a ‘Book Repository’. This was a theoretical design project so the students were permitted a high degree of intellectual and creative freedom; as a result they push the boundaries in exploring what a library could be. Their projects are discussed in presenting hypotheses for concepts in future library design.
THE PRESENCE OF LIBRARIES Alongside the assertion that e-books will replace physical books, it has been suggested that digitisation could also replace libraries themselves (Pawley, 1998). This view fails to acknowledge that, although reading is an introspective activity and an abundance of information can be accessed anywhere digitally, libraries are intrinsic to the fabric of our towns and cities. They are civic buildings. The etymology of ‘civic’ is the Latin civicus, meaning of one’s town or fellow citizens. Being civic-minded is to be concerned with the welfare of the community as a whole, to be public-spirited. It is argued here that civic buildings (both contemporary and historic) are landmarks, setting out what makes us civilised. With 4.5 million visits to libraries each week in the UK (BBC, 2013), they are still significant places and their absence would surely be mourned. Van de Pas (2014) argues that libraries should retain their presence as physical spaces due to the multi-faceted and complex roles they play in
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the community, many of which are difficult to quantify because of their cultural nature. A study of public library use in Norway (Aabo and Audunson, 2012) revealed the majority of users did not visit to borrow or return books but used the place for a wealth of other activities. This suggests the role of libraries extends far beyond that of a repository for physical material, which could more easily be accessed in a virtual cloud. Chan and Spodick (2014) propose that library users desire physical space in which to access information and interact with each other and that digital information alone cannot meet these needs. A number of virtual libraries already exist, such as the Digital Public Library of America. Perhaps unexpectedly, digital libraries can also take the form of real spaces. The first paperless public library has opened in Bexar County, Texas (Hinson, 2014). Here e-readers can be borrowed in just the same way that physical books are in traditional libraries and dozens of monitors allow the public to browse, study and learn digital skills. Although it is anticipated that most users will access the 10,000 digital titles from their homes (Hicks, 2013), this ‘BiblioTech’ suggests that while digitisation could replace books with e-readers, virtual space will not necessarily replace physical library spaces. The latter will need to adapt to survive, but is survival accepted at any cost? The recent proliferation of large library projects has led to the term ‘super library’ to describe iconic large-scale buildings (Dyckhoff, 2013). However, when these are viewed in the context of the closure of many smaller branch libraries, there is an undercurrent of unease: while the ‘super library’ might create significant presence, does it come at the expense of accessibility to all? In Liverpool, for example, despite significant investment in its Central Library, four branch libraries have shut and another 11 are potentially facing closure (Docking, 2014). While there is a persuasive argument for a strong civic presence of city libraries, should this be at the expense of the finer grain of branch libraries? The physical library is a precious civic space. As a consequence of the digitisation of books and other physical media it is undergoing a radical transformation from the role it has played since the Victorian era. This process is creating new incarnations of a traditional building typology. Civic buildings embody a spirit of longevity and the ‘conceptual permanence’ of the library is of paramount importance. At a time of increasingly rapid developments in digital media, libraries must be fluid responsive to new innovations and new patterns of use to maintain that sense of permanence.
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This conceptual identity of ‘the library’ in the minds of its users is a critically important issue. The architectural language of libraries plays a fundamental role in establishing that identity but it also encompasses much more. How do libraries relate to the fabric of the towns and cities they serve, and what purposes do they serve for the people who will use them? It is suggested that a decline in reading parallels a larger retreat from participation in civic and cultural life (NEA, 2004) so libraries have a more crucial role than ever in maintaining civic and cultural engagement and the re-imagined roles of the library must counter this trend. While reading might be an introvert activity, the library must have an extrovert presence the new Library of Birmingham provides just such a statement. The architectural identity of libraries must remain a predominant feature in the urban landscape. They are an internal extension of the public realm of streets and squares, providing shelter and spaces for the population to interact, read, study, watch, pause, contemplate and think.
PHYSICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PERMEABILITY The space in which a library sits the street or square which surrounds it is the first point that the library is physically engaged with. Prizeman (2011) observes that the libraries which face the most complex design challenges are the ones that negotiate interweaving their body of knowledge with the public spaces beyond. The greater the permeability between these two, the greater the challenge but also crucially the more seamlessly the library becomes an extension of the public realm surrounding it. Some of the student projects at LJMU paid particular attention to this issue, proposing in-between spaces that act as bridges between the library and the city. Whereas many libraries have public spaces outside them, the students considered how these spaces could be brought to life by extending the activities within the building beyond its walls an outdoor gallery, for example. One student created an ad hoc second-hand book market outside the library, to blur the boundary between where the city’s public realm ends and the library begins (see Figure 16.1). The new Library of Birmingham was shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize, awarded annually for the building which has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture over that year. It has a void cut into the public square before it, offering views down inside the building to engage the public with the internal spaces before they even cross its threshold (see Figure 16.2). Key to both these theoretical and built
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Figure 16.1 ‘Library of Memories’, by Omar Shariff. The semi-public spaces outside the library are animated with ad hoc uses to blur the boundaries between inside and out.
Figure 16.2 A sunken performance space. A sunken performance space cut into the public square in front of the Library of Birmingham enables people outside to view the activities within.
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projects is the concept of extending the library out into the surrounding public domain. The people passing by have their curiosity ignited and are drawn inside the building itself. Walls of glass can increase a library’s permeability, connecting views between outside and in. The Library of Birmingham is flooded with natural light, heightening connectivity and also reducing the building’s environmental impact. Roof terraces both at Birmingham and Liverpool Central offer another way to connect the interior of the building to its surroundings. The walls of a building can be designed in other ways to heighten this permeability and draw people inwards. One student proposed a library that adapts over time to signify the accessibility of the books inside. The walls of the building can be moved, rotated and changed to become increasingly permeable (see Figure 16.3). It is not a static structure, it is different from one moment in time to the next, enticing people into the building. Once over the thresholds of Liverpool Central Library and the Library of Birmingham, users are drawn effortlessly inwards and upwards via escalators that entice them deeper into the building almost without their realising it. This Wegfu¨hrung, or ‘leading of route’, was employed by the
Figure 16.3 ‘Library of Iconoclasm’, by Sarah Aziz. The walls of the building change over time to become increasingly permeable to visitors. Its presence is striking nonetheless.
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architect Hans Scharoun in the design of the State Library, Berlin (1979). Regarded by Scharoun as ‘the path of the visitor’, users are drawn towards a beckoning staircase and unfolding vistas (Blundell Jones, 1995). A similar strategy is employed at both Seattle Central Library (2004) and Spijkenisse Book Mountain, in which spiralling paths wind their way upwards through the book stacks. The student projects extend this notion beyond the walls of the library, tempting visitors into the building even before they cross its threshold. In this way the interior of the library becomes more seamlessly connected with the spaces around it, enhancing the conceptual permeability of the building. Put another way, these projects are ‘libraries without walls’, which strive to lessen the physical barriers between the interior spaces and the public realm outside. Elegantly designed public spaces nurture a rich and complex diversity of pluralistic, tolerant interaction between people. Not only should libraries extend themselves seamlessly into the public realm of their surrounding town or city, but their own variations of squares, parks, streets and cafes should foster the same interaction between users inside them (Aabo and Audunson, 2012).
SPACES OF PLAYFULNESS In traditional library design the book collection formed a key architectural element in the building. But take away this physical element as would happen with a digital collection and what replaces it? In both Liverpool and Manchester’s refurbished city libraries the original reading rooms have been retained oases of calm with their self-policing code of silence. However, in both buildings it is no longer the focal point it once was. The libraries themselves have become decentralised and polycentric, breaking down the traditional hierarchy led by the reading room. If increasing digitisation results in less focus on physical book collections, a library’s programme and purpose must be envisioned in a more diverse sense. This is an opportunity to innovate, not a cause to mourn. The move toward digital collections could in fact facilitate a dramatic spatial reappraisal of library design. As Law (2014) notes, rethinking the library as a working space as opposed to a storage space should reflect the needs of library users. As more information becomes available digitally, will the physical collection of the library become more focused on the preservation of historic
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books? What could step into the important role previously played by open books stacks? Whatever replaces them will surely be of equal gravitas. The public library could become fused with other equally civic uses. The Arts Council England proposes involving the community a library serves in identifying its programme (Davey, 2013). Such functions might include: a cre`che, a walk-in health centre, access to council services or a community parliament. Less civic, more commercial functions could include shops or a gym. One student project at LJMU proposed a library fused with a nursery school why shouldn’t a library be combined with a primary school or a day-care centre (see Figure 16.4)? This concept of cross-programming could diversify the role of libraries and in so doing attract a new audience. As civic buildings libraries could come to serve their community in radically new ways, but is this a desirable trend? Edwards (2009) asserts that architects have a duty to advance libraries to meet the challenges presented by the digital era not create mongrels of building types. Libraries already provide for a complex variety of meeting places (Aabo, Audunson & Varheim, 2010), and they must of course evolve in response to new demands and innovations, but there is a clear mental picture in the minds of the populace about what ‘a library’ is (and what it represents) that must remain. The building must have the identity of a library, not a multi-function hybrid within which the library almost seems an afterthought. There is already a trend towards greater informality in libraries. What was traditionally a formal civic building in both an architectural sense and in the way in which users occupied it is gradually being
Figure 16.4 ‘The School for Storytelling’, by Lee Newell. This hybrid project proposed the conjunction of a nursery and a library to address falling child literacy.
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transformed by the presence of ever more casual spaces. For example, in the refurbished city libraries of both Liverpool and Manchester the visitor is greeted by a coffee shop. Though many libraries have cafes, positioning them as the first space the users encounter represents the extent to which cafe culture is infiltrating libraries. The increasingly relaxed nature of the spaces in libraries is changing the way people occupy them. These informal spaces include sofas, terraced seating, bean-bags, bar-stools, landscaped roof gardens and armchairs clustered around coffee tables (see Figure 16.5). Libraries are fast becoming a new ‘civic living room’. There is a discussion to be had about whether this increasing informality in libraries could eventually undermine their civic identity. Just as the conceptual presence of a library might be diluted by its conjunction with other functions in a hybrid public building, might the increasingly casual environments in libraries reach the point where they bear little if any resemblance to their civic tradition? Laurillard has questioned the increasing informality created by merging cafe culture with learning
Figure 16.5 The new Library of Birmingham. The new Library of Birmingham contains a diverse range of spaces for relaxed and casual reading.
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environments (Donovan, 2008); however, Joint (2011) argues that just such developments have increased library visitors by providing the spaces that users want. One of the students explored the design of his library as a ‘third place’, a term often used in the context of neutral meeting places. Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Skot-Hansen (2012) trace the phrase to Oldenburg (1999) who studied the public places where people gather spaces outside of both the ‘first place’ (home) and the ‘second place’ (work). It could be argued that the increasing informality of libraries means that they are becoming further removed from the ‘second place’ that of work and study; some more closely resemble the domestic ‘first place’. In sharp contrast, the majority of student projects proposed more formally occupied space, resembling quite traditional library designs. The only exception was the ‘School for Storytelling’, which is designed for children. Of course there is need for new types of spaces for users to access information digitally, such as digital reading rooms, pods to view films and places to listen to audio-books. These digital reading spaces extend what the library does and what can be done there. Though the central focus might no longer be on physical books, it is still on learning. It has been argued that libraries are becoming centres for contemporary culture, providing access to information technology and cultural events as much as to physical books (Rosen, 2013). Adjacent to the cafe on the ground floor of Manchester’s refurbished Central Library is an area bearing more than a passing resemblance to a mobile phone store. Visitors stand instead of sit and use touch screens to browse digitised local history records and historic maps of the city. The environment seems to encourage casual engagement rather than providing for the needs of the dedicated researcher. Thailand Knowledge Park in Bangkok includes a multimedia library with both digital and physical books, Internet centres, a cafe, a 4D film theatre and other media facilities, as well as a silent study space. Its underlying character is one of informality. It has been integrated with a shopping centre, creating a new form of cross-programming to appeal to those who might not ordinarily engage with a library. The concept encourages young people who frequent shopping centres and whose first port of call for research is Google to engage with reading and study; spaces for learning and leisure have been fused together. Arguably this leaning toward a culture of consumption of which digitisation is a fundamental part (van de Pas, 2014) is an erosion of the very quality of being civic.
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Figure 16.6 ‘The library of unanswered questions’, by Andrew Jewsbury. This project highlights the role of libraries in the dissemination of knowledge through physical books, in which frozen thoughts are stored for fresh interpretation.
It is particularly interesting to note that, notwithstanding the many prophesies that libraries will be replaced with digital information sources, all of the students explored the design of spaces for physical books over digital reading spaces and proposed quite traditional use of spaces by the libraries’ occupants. For them a physical collection of books was intrinsically woven into the notion of what constitutes a library, although what that collection symbolised varied across the different projects (see Figure 16.6). Higher education is increasingly blended between real and virtual spaces and the move towards digital content over physical collections is probably most notable in university libraries, where a significant proportion of budgets are spent on digital formats (Wilkinson, 2013). Hurst (2013) identifies a decline in university library visits over the last decade, reflecting this increasing availability of digital content. Interestingly, informality is also a trend in academic libraries as well as public (Dugdale, 2009). At the University of Manchester, for example, students increasingly desire spacious group areas to support new ways of learning social spaces, relaxation areas and cafes that allow them to spend extensive periods of time in the library. Similarly, the renovation and extension of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library (HKUST) has seen the creation of common spaces which nurture collaborative learning and interaction, positioned alongside refreshment and relaxation spaces (Chan and Spodick, 2014).
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Massis (2012) proposes that quiet study spaces must remain in libraries to support their traditional role of solitude and silent study, a serene counterpoint to the burgeoning group study and digital reading rooms that buzz with interaction and activity. The need to retain such silent study spaces in university libraries is also cited by Hurst (2013). There is a growing argument for libraries to accommodate both silent spaces as well as hives of activity (Swerling, 2014). Such quiet and contemplative spaces could inhabit the periphery of the library as a ‘civic living room’. The spaces would provide a continuation of the more formal characteristics of the traditional library which might otherwise be lost to increasingly casual environments. One of the LJMU students paid particular attention to the provision of such ‘reading alcoves’, locating them off the primary route through the building, commanding dramatic views across the city (see Figure 16.7).
CONCLUDING REMARKS LIBRARY ARCHITECTURE
A MANIFESTO FOR FUTURE
Many have suggested that digitisation would sound the death knell for libraries but a more considered view is that it is facilitating a renaissance for them. Freed from the conventional shackles of capacity and book stacks, libraries are being reinvented to provide new opportunities for users and the roles these buildings play are being dramatically re-evaluated. As Edwards (2009) observed, the conventions of tradition should not be ignored but given fresh meaning by transformation. This can be seen in recent city libraries in the UK, where traditional characteristics of the building type are still present but coexist alongside new interpretations of how they should be used and occupied. Many libraries that have been redesigned to reflect new learning cultures (across both public and academic contexts) have increased their physical visits, illustrating the importance of good library architecture (Joint, 2011). That said, in the four years of the ‘Book Repository’ project not one student proposed a building without books. It is both surprising and significant that successive cohorts of creative young adults, who have grown up on this side of the digital revolution, chose not only to retain books as physical entities but to prioritise them over digital content. Although there are examples of virtual libraries and a library solely containing e-books, for most even where some content is digital physical books
Figure 16.7 ‘Library of the Future’, by Laura Baker. A variety of reading niches and alcoves for quiet contemplation and reading are situated around the perimeter of this library.
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still form a significant element of their programme. However, book stacks and reading spaces for physical books increasingly sit alongside ever more diverse spaces. The identity of libraries within the fabric of towns and cities is fundamentally important. They should be perceived as an anchored but responsive presence in a world changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Their architecture should reflect their civic nature and the gravitas associated with that and identify them as cultural landmarks. They should be an extrovert statement in civic and cultural engagement, and hybrid programmes must also not dilute their identity. Libraries should have seamless permeability, with their interiors forming a natural extension of the public realm in which they sit. They must also be conceptually permeable buildings, enabling the population around them to identify and associate with them. As Massis (2014) highlights, libraries are not outside of their specific communities be that public, academic or organisation but are integral to them. As such they must be as permeable and accessible as is feasible to that community physically, digitally and conceptually. Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Jochumsen (2009) suggest that people have not stopped using the physical library, but they do so in new ways. A significant trend in library design is increasing informality; they are becoming the ‘civic living rooms’ of our towns and cities. The move toward more informal spaces, facilitated in part by greater emphasis on digital collections, is a positive step in further democratising library spaces. This repurposing of spaces reflects changing relationships between the library and its users. It is also a key issue in increasing permeability by reducing psychological walls. However, while increasingly casual environments might reflect society at large, cafe culture should not subsume libraries’ civic nature and the cultural role that they have played throughout their history. Libraries should embrace informality but maintain the tradition of silent study; physical volumes should be blended with and as accessible as new digital media. The balance between these elements will inevitably vary, and libraries should be agile in responding to changing demands. Libraries should remain a vitally important element of towns and cities. As civic buildings they play a crucial role in the cultural fabric of our lives. This role is changing radically, creating new concepts and designs for what libraries will become. The rapid developments in digital technologies and their wider adoption by the public mean that libraries will evolve ever more quickly in the future.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The students whose work is featured are: Sarah Aziz, Laura Baker, Andrew Jewsbury, Lee Newell and Omar Shariff. The author thanks them for their creative contributions and permission to reproduce their work.
REFERENCES Aabo, S., & Audunson, R. (2012). Use of library space and the library as place. Library and Information Science Research, 34, 138 149. Aabo, S., Audunson, R., & Varheim, A. (2010). How do public libraries function as meeting places? Library and Information Science Research, 32, 16 26. Blundell Jones, P. (1995). Hans Scharoun. London: Phaidon Press. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). (2013). Library visits drop by a quarter in eight years. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts24296825.. Chan, D. L. H., & Spodick, E. (2014). Space development a case study of HKUST library. New Library World, 115(5/6), 250 262. Davey, A. (2013). A library of the future A response to envisioning the library of the future. London: Arts Council England. [Online] Available from: http://ww.artscouncil.org. uk/advice-and-guidance/browse-advice-and-guidance/library-future. Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). (2013). Taking part statistical release. [Online] Available from: ,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/takingpart-201314-quarter-1-statistical-release.. Docking, N. (2014). Revealed: Liverpool’s 11 libraries at risk of closure are named. Liverpool Echo, 8 August. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.liverpoolecho.co. uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpools-11-libraries-risk-closure-7583295.. Donovan, K. (2008). An interview with Diana Laurillard. Association for learning technology online newsletter, 14. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.alt.ac.uk/docs/ final_transcript%20_diana_laurillard_interview.pdf.. Dugdale, S. (2009). Space strategies for the new learning landscape. EDUCAUSE Review, 44 (2). [Online] Available from: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0925.pdf. Dutta-Bergman, M. J. (2004). Complementarity in consumption of new types across traditional and new media. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48(1), 41 60. Dyckhoff, T. (2013). Rise of the super library: From Birmingham to the world. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/0/23976745.. Edwards, B. (2009). Libraries and learning resource centres (2nd ed.). Oxford: Architectural Press. Farley, C. (2014). Do people need libraries in the digital age? Wall Street Journal, . [Online] Available from: ,http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/02/12/are-librariesoverdue-for-digital-change/.. Gomez, J. (2008). Print is dead: Books in our digital age. London: Macmillan. Hicks, B. (2013). Paperless public libraries switch to digital. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22160990.. Hinson, T. (2014). Library with its head in the cloud. Metro, 3 February, pp. 12 13. Hurst, S. (2013). Current trends in UK university libraries. New Library World, 114(9/10), 398 407. Hvenegaard Rasmussen, C., & Jochumsen, H. (2009). The fall and rise of the physical library. Paper presented at the 17th BOBCATSSS symposium, Porto, 28 30 January. [Online] Available from: ,http://eprints.rclis.org/bitstream/10760/12925/1/40.pdf.. Jochumsen, H., Hvenegaard Rasmussen, C., & Skot-Hansen, D. (2012). The four spaces a new model for the public library. New Library World, 113(11/12), 586 597.
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Joint, N. (2011). If Google makes you stupid, what should librarians do about it? Library Review, 60(4), 269 278. Kennedy, A. L. (2014). A point of view: What happens when a library falls silent. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27795832.. Law, D. (2014). The world is our lobster: Rethinking traditional attitudes. New Library World, 115(5/6), 200 210. Lumb, D. (2013). Library of Birmingham: Official opening of d189m building. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-23854509.. Massis, B. E. (2012). In the library: Quiet space endures. New Library World, 113(7/8), 396 399. Massis, B. E. (2014). Innovation and rationalization to sustain the library’s future. New Library World, 115(5/6), 285 288. National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) (2004). Reading at risk: A survey of literary reading in America executive summary. Washington, DC: NEA. Oldenburg, R. (1999). The great good place Cafe´s, coffee shops, bookstores, bars, hair salons and other hangouts at the heart of the community. New York: Marlowe. Pawley, M. (1998). Terminal architecture. London: Reaktion Books. Prizeman, O. (2011). Typology quarterly: Libraries. Architectural Review, 1377, 83 95. Rosen, M. (2013). Our libraries: The next chapter episode two. BBC, broadcast 11 September. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b039q5dv.. Swerling, G. (2014). Could the librarians please shush, we’re reading, The Times, 8 November, p. 7. van de Pas, J. (2014). Ad fontes! Books on shelves!. New Library World, 115(5/6), 272 284. Wilkinson, J. (2013). Library futures: Manchester University. The Guardian, 7 August. [Online] Available from: ,http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/ 2013/aug/07/library-futures-university-of-manchester..
Presence, Permeability and Playfulness: Future Library Architecture in the Digital Era Charlie Smith
INTRODUCTION Libraries are under pressure; many have closed and others face an uncertain future. The number of public libraries in the UK fell by 347 in 2012 (Lumb, 2013), and in 2014 another 61 were withdrawn from service (Kennedy, 2014). Over the last eight years visitors to public libraries in the UK dropped by a quarter (DCMS, 2013). The American Library Association reports that while the use of library materials has increased in the US in recent times, physical visits have declined (Farley, 2014). A frequent explanation for this decline is digitisation. The Internet has been in common use for two decades so it is a pertinent time to reflect on how the digital world has affected libraries and to consider the future of library design. Debate continues to rage about whether libraries are needed in an increasingly digital era where millions of books can be accessed via the Internet and an entire library can be carried in one hand. As more books, newspapers and journals become digitised, and our culture becomes increasingly digitally orientated, how will people choose to read and study? Gomez (2008) contends that the need for printed media is inexorably disappearing. Others propose that the future is one in which digitisation complements rather than supersedes physical books (DuttaBergman, 2004). Despite suggestions that digitisation will mean that the library as a special place will disappear, Edwards (2009) argues that this view fails to acknowledge the symbolic domain of the library. There are issues which are perhaps overlooked in a black-and-white debate over digital versus physical books. Firstly, not all physical information is available in digital format. Secondly, libraries play a much more complex role than merely providing a repository for shelves of books. We do not Digital Information Strategies. © 2016 Charlie Smith. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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know for certain what the roles of physical books and libraries will be in the future, but where might library design fall in the spectrum between the physical space of buildings and the virtual space of digitisation? This chapter discusses both how digital media is influencing the design of libraries changing the way users occupy spaces within them and the role libraries play as cultural buildings. It proposes a manifesto for future library architecture in the context of three characteristics: presence, permeability and playfulness. While the plethora of recent closures is alarming, exemplary and inspiring libraries have opened in recent years. These include the National Library of China (2008), the Rolex Learning Centre in Lausanne (2010), the Hive in Worcester (2012), the Spijkenisse Book Mountain in the Netherlands (2012), the Library of Birmingham (2013), the Liverpool Central Library (2013) and Manchester’s Central Library (2014). In the course of this chapter trends in recent library architecture will be explored and evaluated. Final-year undergraduate students on the Architecture course at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have been exploring the design of libraries. Between 2009 and 2013 they designed their interpretations of a ‘Book Repository’. This was a theoretical design project so the students were permitted a high degree of intellectual and creative freedom; as a result they push the boundaries in exploring what a library could be. Their projects are discussed in presenting hypotheses for concepts in future library design.
THE PRESENCE OF LIBRARIES Alongside the assertion that e-books will replace physical books, it has been suggested that digitisation could also replace libraries themselves (Pawley, 1998). This view fails to acknowledge that, although reading is an introspective activity and an abundance of information can be accessed anywhere digitally, libraries are intrinsic to the fabric of our towns and cities. They are civic buildings. The etymology of ‘civic’ is the Latin civicus, meaning of one’s town or fellow citizens. Being civic-minded is to be concerned with the welfare of the community as a whole, to be public-spirited. It is argued here that civic buildings (both contemporary and historic) are landmarks, setting out what makes us civilised. With 4.5 million visits to libraries each week in the UK (BBC, 2013), they are still significant places and their absence would surely be mourned. Van de Pas (2014) argues that libraries should retain their presence as physical spaces due to the multi-faceted and complex roles they play in
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the community, many of which are difficult to quantify because of their cultural nature. A study of public library use in Norway (Aabo and Audunson, 2012) revealed the majority of users did not visit to borrow or return books but used the place for a wealth of other activities. This suggests the role of libraries extends far beyond that of a repository for physical material, which could more easily be accessed in a virtual cloud. Chan and Spodick (2014) propose that library users desire physical space in which to access information and interact with each other and that digital information alone cannot meet these needs. A number of virtual libraries already exist, such as the Digital Public Library of America. Perhaps unexpectedly, digital libraries can also take the form of real spaces. The first paperless public library has opened in Bexar County, Texas (Hinson, 2014). Here e-readers can be borrowed in just the same way that physical books are in traditional libraries and dozens of monitors allow the public to browse, study and learn digital skills. Although it is anticipated that most users will access the 10,000 digital titles from their homes (Hicks, 2013), this ‘BiblioTech’ suggests that while digitisation could replace books with e-readers, virtual space will not necessarily replace physical library spaces. The latter will need to adapt to survive, but is survival accepted at any cost? The recent proliferation of large library projects has led to the term ‘super library’ to describe iconic large-scale buildings (Dyckhoff, 2013). However, when these are viewed in the context of the closure of many smaller branch libraries, there is an undercurrent of unease: while the ‘super library’ might create significant presence, does it come at the expense of accessibility to all? In Liverpool, for example, despite significant investment in its Central Library, four branch libraries have shut and another 11 are potentially facing closure (Docking, 2014). While there is a persuasive argument for a strong civic presence of city libraries, should this be at the expense of the finer grain of branch libraries? The physical library is a precious civic space. As a consequence of the digitisation of books and other physical media it is undergoing a radical transformation from the role it has played since the Victorian era. This process is creating new incarnations of a traditional building typology. Civic buildings embody a spirit of longevity and the ‘conceptual permanence’ of the library is of paramount importance. At a time of increasingly rapid developments in digital media, libraries must be fluid responsive to new innovations and new patterns of use to maintain that sense of permanence.
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This conceptual identity of ‘the library’ in the minds of its users is a critically important issue. The architectural language of libraries plays a fundamental role in establishing that identity but it also encompasses much more. How do libraries relate to the fabric of the towns and cities they serve, and what purposes do they serve for the people who will use them? It is suggested that a decline in reading parallels a larger retreat from participation in civic and cultural life (NEA, 2004) so libraries have a more crucial role than ever in maintaining civic and cultural engagement and the re-imagined roles of the library must counter this trend. While reading might be an introvert activity, the library must have an extrovert presence the new Library of Birmingham provides just such a statement. The architectural identity of libraries must remain a predominant feature in the urban landscape. They are an internal extension of the public realm of streets and squares, providing shelter and spaces for the population to interact, read, study, watch, pause, contemplate and think.
PHYSICAL AND CONCEPTUAL PERMEABILITY The space in which a library sits the street or square which surrounds it is the first point that the library is physically engaged with. Prizeman (2011) observes that the libraries which face the most complex design challenges are the ones that negotiate interweaving their body of knowledge with the public spaces beyond. The greater the permeability between these two, the greater the challenge but also crucially the more seamlessly the library becomes an extension of the public realm surrounding it. Some of the student projects at LJMU paid particular attention to this issue, proposing in-between spaces that act as bridges between the library and the city. Whereas many libraries have public spaces outside them, the students considered how these spaces could be brought to life by extending the activities within the building beyond its walls an outdoor gallery, for example. One student created an ad hoc second-hand book market outside the library, to blur the boundary between where the city’s public realm ends and the library begins (see Figure 16.1). The new Library of Birmingham was shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize, awarded annually for the building which has made the greatest contribution to the evolution of architecture over that year. It has a void cut into the public square before it, offering views down inside the building to engage the public with the internal spaces before they even cross its threshold (see Figure 16.2). Key to both these theoretical and built
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Figure 16.1 ‘Library of Memories’, by Omar Shariff. The semi-public spaces outside the library are animated with ad hoc uses to blur the boundaries between inside and out.
Figure 16.2 A sunken performance space. A sunken performance space cut into the public square in front of the Library of Birmingham enables people outside to view the activities within.
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projects is the concept of extending the library out into the surrounding public domain. The people passing by have their curiosity ignited and are drawn inside the building itself. Walls of glass can increase a library’s permeability, connecting views between outside and in. The Library of Birmingham is flooded with natural light, heightening connectivity and also reducing the building’s environmental impact. Roof terraces both at Birmingham and Liverpool Central offer another way to connect the interior of the building to its surroundings. The walls of a building can be designed in other ways to heighten this permeability and draw people inwards. One student proposed a library that adapts over time to signify the accessibility of the books inside. The walls of the building can be moved, rotated and changed to become increasingly permeable (see Figure 16.3). It is not a static structure, it is different from one moment in time to the next, enticing people into the building. Once over the thresholds of Liverpool Central Library and the Library of Birmingham, users are drawn effortlessly inwards and upwards via escalators that entice them deeper into the building almost without their realising it. This Wegfu¨hrung, or ‘leading of route’, was employed by the
Figure 16.3 ‘Library of Iconoclasm’, by Sarah Aziz. The walls of the building change over time to become increasingly permeable to visitors. Its presence is striking nonetheless.
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architect Hans Scharoun in the design of the State Library, Berlin (1979). Regarded by Scharoun as ‘the path of the visitor’, users are drawn towards a beckoning staircase and unfolding vistas (Blundell Jones, 1995). A similar strategy is employed at both Seattle Central Library (2004) and Spijkenisse Book Mountain, in which spiralling paths wind their way upwards through the book stacks. The student projects extend this notion beyond the walls of the library, tempting visitors into the building even before they cross its threshold. In this way the interior of the library becomes more seamlessly connected with the spaces around it, enhancing the conceptual permeability of the building. Put another way, these projects are ‘libraries without walls’, which strive to lessen the physical barriers between the interior spaces and the public realm outside. Elegantly designed public spaces nurture a rich and complex diversity of pluralistic, tolerant interaction between people. Not only should libraries extend themselves seamlessly into the public realm of their surrounding town or city, but their own variations of squares, parks, streets and cafes should foster the same interaction between users inside them (Aabo and Audunson, 2012).
SPACES OF PLAYFULNESS In traditional library design the book collection formed a key architectural element in the building. But take away this physical element as would happen with a digital collection and what replaces it? In both Liverpool and Manchester’s refurbished city libraries the original reading rooms have been retained oases of calm with their self-policing code of silence. However, in both buildings it is no longer the focal point it once was. The libraries themselves have become decentralised and polycentric, breaking down the traditional hierarchy led by the reading room. If increasing digitisation results in less focus on physical book collections, a library’s programme and purpose must be envisioned in a more diverse sense. This is an opportunity to innovate, not a cause to mourn. The move toward digital collections could in fact facilitate a dramatic spatial reappraisal of library design. As Law (2014) notes, rethinking the library as a working space as opposed to a storage space should reflect the needs of library users. As more information becomes available digitally, will the physical collection of the library become more focused on the preservation of historic
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books? What could step into the important role previously played by open books stacks? Whatever replaces them will surely be of equal gravitas. The public library could become fused with other equally civic uses. The Arts Council England proposes involving the community a library serves in identifying its programme (Davey, 2013). Such functions might include: a cre`che, a walk-in health centre, access to council services or a community parliament. Less civic, more commercial functions could include shops or a gym. One student project at LJMU proposed a library fused with a nursery school why shouldn’t a library be combined with a primary school or a day-care centre (see Figure 16.4)? This concept of cross-programming could diversify the role of libraries and in so doing attract a new audience. As civic buildings libraries could come to serve their community in radically new ways, but is this a desirable trend? Edwards (2009) asserts that architects have a duty to advance libraries to meet the challenges presented by the digital era not create mongrels of building types. Libraries already provide for a complex variety of meeting places (Aabo, Audunson & Varheim, 2010), and they must of course evolve in response to new demands and innovations, but there is a clear mental picture in the minds of the populace about what ‘a library’ is (and what it represents) that must remain. The building must have the identity of a library, not a multi-function hybrid within which the library almost seems an afterthought. There is already a trend towards greater informality in libraries. What was traditionally a formal civic building in both an architectural sense and in the way in which users occupied it is gradually being
Figure 16.4 ‘The School for Storytelling’, by Lee Newell. This hybrid project proposed the conjunction of a nursery and a library to address falling child literacy.
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transformed by the presence of ever more casual spaces. For example, in the refurbished city libraries of both Liverpool and Manchester the visitor is greeted by a coffee shop. Though many libraries have cafes, positioning them as the first space the users encounter represents the extent to which cafe culture is infiltrating libraries. The increasingly relaxed nature of the spaces in libraries is changing the way people occupy them. These informal spaces include sofas, terraced seating, bean-bags, bar-stools, landscaped roof gardens and armchairs clustered around coffee tables (see Figure 16.5). Libraries are fast becoming a new ‘civic living room’. There is a discussion to be had about whether this increasing informality in libraries could eventually undermine their civic identity. Just as the conceptual presence of a library might be diluted by its conjunction with other functions in a hybrid public building, might the increasingly casual environments in libraries reach the point where they bear little if any resemblance to their civic tradition? Laurillard has questioned the increasing informality created by merging cafe culture with learning
Figure 16.5 The new Library of Birmingham. The new Library of Birmingham contains a diverse range of spaces for relaxed and casual reading.
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environments (Donovan, 2008); however, Joint (2011) argues that just such developments have increased library visitors by providing the spaces that users want. One of the students explored the design of his library as a ‘third place’, a term often used in the context of neutral meeting places. Jochumsen, Hvenegaard Rasmussen, and Skot-Hansen (2012) trace the phrase to Oldenburg (1999) who studied the public places where people gather spaces outside of both the ‘first place’ (home) and the ‘second place’ (work). It could be argued that the increasing informality of libraries means that they are becoming further removed from the ‘second place’ that of work and study; some more closely resemble the domestic ‘first place’. In sharp contrast, the majority of student projects proposed more formally occupied space, resembling quite traditional library designs. The only exception was the ‘School for Storytelling’, which is designed for children. Of course there is need for new types of spaces for users to access information digitally, such as digital reading rooms, pods to view films and places to listen to audio-books. These digital reading spaces extend what the library does and what can be done there. Though the central focus might no longer be on physical books, it is still on learning. It has been argued that libraries are becoming centres for contemporary culture, providing access to information technology and cultural events as much as to physical books (Rosen, 2013). Adjacent to the cafe on the ground floor of Manchester’s refurbished Central Library is an area bearing more than a passing resemblance to a mobile phone store. Visitors stand instead of sit and use touch screens to browse digitised local history records and historic maps of the city. The environment seems to encourage casual engagement rather than providing for the needs of the dedicated researcher. Thailand Knowledge Park in Bangkok includes a multimedia library with both digital and physical books, Internet centres, a cafe, a 4D film theatre and other media facilities, as well as a silent study space. Its underlying character is one of informality. It has been integrated with a shopping centre, creating a new form of cross-programming to appeal to those who might not ordinarily engage with a library. The concept encourages young people who frequent shopping centres and whose first port of call for research is Google to engage with reading and study; spaces for learning and leisure have been fused together. Arguably this leaning toward a culture of consumption of which digitisation is a fundamental part (van de Pas, 2014) is an erosion of the very quality of being civic.
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Figure 16.6 ‘The library of unanswered questions’, by Andrew Jewsbury. This project highlights the role of libraries in the dissemination of knowledge through physical books, in which frozen thoughts are stored for fresh interpretation.
It is particularly interesting to note that, notwithstanding the many prophesies that libraries will be replaced with digital information sources, all of the students explored the design of spaces for physical books over digital reading spaces and proposed quite traditional use of spaces by the libraries’ occupants. For them a physical collection of books was intrinsically woven into the notion of what constitutes a library, although what that collection symbolised varied across the different projects (see Figure 16.6). Higher education is increasingly blended between real and virtual spaces and the move towards digital content over physical collections is probably most notable in university libraries, where a significant proportion of budgets are spent on digital formats (Wilkinson, 2013). Hurst (2013) identifies a decline in university library visits over the last decade, reflecting this increasing availability of digital content. Interestingly, informality is also a trend in academic libraries as well as public (Dugdale, 2009). At the University of Manchester, for example, students increasingly desire spacious group areas to support new ways of learning social spaces, relaxation areas and cafes that allow them to spend extensive periods of time in the library. Similarly, the renovation and extension of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library (HKUST) has seen the creation of common spaces which nurture collaborative learning and interaction, positioned alongside refreshment and relaxation spaces (Chan and Spodick, 2014).
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Massis (2012) proposes that quiet study spaces must remain in libraries to support their traditional role of solitude and silent study, a serene counterpoint to the burgeoning group study and digital reading rooms that buzz with interaction and activity. The need to retain such silent study spaces in university libraries is also cited by Hurst (2013). There is a growing argument for libraries to accommodate both silent spaces as well as hives of activity (Swerling, 2014). Such quiet and contemplative spaces could inhabit the periphery of the library as a ‘civic living room’. The spaces would provide a continuation of the more formal characteristics of the traditional library which might otherwise be lost to increasingly casual environments. One of the LJMU students paid particular attention to the provision of such ‘reading alcoves’, locating them off the primary route through the building, commanding dramatic views across the city (see Figure 16.7).
CONCLUDING REMARKS LIBRARY ARCHITECTURE
A MANIFESTO FOR FUTURE
Many have suggested that digitisation would sound the death knell for libraries but a more considered view is that it is facilitating a renaissance for them. Freed from the conventional shackles of capacity and book stacks, libraries are being reinvented to provide new opportunities for users and the roles these buildings play are being dramatically re-evaluated. As Edwards (2009) observed, the conventions of tradition should not be ignored but given fresh meaning by transformation. This can be seen in recent city libraries in the UK, where traditional characteristics of the building type are still present but coexist alongside new interpretations of how they should be used and occupied. Many libraries that have been redesigned to reflect new learning cultures (across both public and academic contexts) have increased their physical visits, illustrating the importance of good library architecture (Joint, 2011). That said, in the four years of the ‘Book Repository’ project not one student proposed a building without books. It is both surprising and significant that successive cohorts of creative young adults, who have grown up on this side of the digital revolution, chose not only to retain books as physical entities but to prioritise them over digital content. Although there are examples of virtual libraries and a library solely containing e-books, for most even where some content is digital physical books
Figure 16.7 ‘Library of the Future’, by Laura Baker. A variety of reading niches and alcoves for quiet contemplation and reading are situated around the perimeter of this library.
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still form a significant element of their programme. However, book stacks and reading spaces for physical books increasingly sit alongside ever more diverse spaces. The identity of libraries within the fabric of towns and cities is fundamentally important. They should be perceived as an anchored but responsive presence in a world changing at an increasingly rapid pace. Their architecture should reflect their civic nature and the gravitas associated with that and identify them as cultural landmarks. They should be an extrovert statement in civic and cultural engagement, and hybrid programmes must also not dilute their identity. Libraries should have seamless permeability, with their interiors forming a natural extension of the public realm in which they sit. They must also be conceptually permeable buildings, enabling the population around them to identify and associate with them. As Massis (2014) highlights, libraries are not outside of their specific communities be that public, academic or organisation but are integral to them. As such they must be as permeable and accessible as is feasible to that community physically, digitally and conceptually. Hvenegaard Rasmussen and Jochumsen (2009) suggest that people have not stopped using the physical library, but they do so in new ways. A significant trend in library design is increasing informality; they are becoming the ‘civic living rooms’ of our towns and cities. The move toward more informal spaces, facilitated in part by greater emphasis on digital collections, is a positive step in further democratising library spaces. This repurposing of spaces reflects changing relationships between the library and its users. It is also a key issue in increasing permeability by reducing psychological walls. However, while increasingly casual environments might reflect society at large, cafe culture should not subsume libraries’ civic nature and the cultural role that they have played throughout their history. Libraries should embrace informality but maintain the tradition of silent study; physical volumes should be blended with and as accessible as new digital media. The balance between these elements will inevitably vary, and libraries should be agile in responding to changing demands. Libraries should remain a vitally important element of towns and cities. As civic buildings they play a crucial role in the cultural fabric of our lives. This role is changing radically, creating new concepts and designs for what libraries will become. The rapid developments in digital technologies and their wider adoption by the public mean that libraries will evolve ever more quickly in the future.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The students whose work is featured are: Sarah Aziz, Laura Baker, Andrew Jewsbury, Lee Newell and Omar Shariff. The author thanks them for their creative contributions and permission to reproduce their work.
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