Hasta La Ideas

New York architect Joel Sanders has overhauled a library at Princeton University by installing interactive technology and colour-coded study areas (+ slideshow).

The Julian Street Library is in a 1960′s building on the campus and was originally a reading room with study spaces for solitary readers.

The architects removed an existing brick wall and placed a ramp between the library and entrance area, creating a new space where students can relax and socialise.

Maple panelling clads the floor, walls and ceiling on one side of the library to create a quiet study area with upright seating and communal tables.

On the other side, the study lounge contains blue bookcases and banquettes for more relaxed working.

There’s also an interactive media table, displayed via a concealed projector, which allows students to exchange information and search the book collection.

The project recently won an IIDA Library Interior Design Award.

Photography is by Peter Aaron.

See all our stories about libraries »

Here’s some more information from Joel Sanders Architect:

The Julian Street Library, a newly renovated library in a 1960s modernist building at Princeton University, transforms a 3,100 sq ft reading room into a state-of-the-art multimedia learning environment. Situated between a residential college and the main campus centre, the library acts as a hub for undergraduate students on their way to the central campus. Recognising that, with the advent of digital technologies, libraries are multipurpose spaces that sponsor study and social interaction, our design reconceives the refurbished library as a wired environment where students can work, lounge, and socialise day and night.

Bringing library into vestibule

Our solution solves the dual challenge of improving circulation between the vestibule and campus, as well as between the vestibule and library, by allowing the vestibule and library to overlap. We removed an existing demising brick wall, and taking inspiration from the Laurentian Library in Florence, brought the library into the vestibule by way of a dynamic ramp that pours into this previously underutilized space. No longer simply a threshold, the vestibule is now a space where students study, relax, and socialize. A series of terraced benches activate the vestibule and provide access to a communal library table and computer terminals located at the summit. The ramp then ushers students into the main library which is divided into two activity zones differentiated by color and materials.

New media: 24/7 wired space to study and socialise

Traditionally conceived as single purpose spaces intended for studying only, libraries are now multi-purpose spaces that support studying and socialising. As a consequence, our project divides the library into two overlapping activity zones differentiated by color and materials. On the one hand, maple acoustical panelling clads the floor, walls and ceiling of the quiet study area where students work upright at communal tables and built-in computer stations. On the other hand, teal upholstered banquettes define the adjacent casual study lounge. Students can easily shift between both zones as their needs change throughout the day, allowing them to work either individually or collaboratively in a 24/7 wired environment.

As students transition from reading a book to working on their laptop, study postures change, requiring different levels of focus, lengths of time, and degrees of engagement with other students. Our design provides various options – banquettes, tables and work stations – allowing individuals to transition easily from relaxed, passive postures (while reading or watching material for the first time) to more alert postures (while actively processing material and producing original work).

Teal bookcases carved into the walls display the original Julian Street book collection donated to Princeton University in 1962. Built within these bookcases, birch-lined cabinets house computers and music recording equipment so that students have access to old and new media as they work.

An electronic communal media table provides an interactive forum where students of Wilson College can exchange information with other students working in the vestibule and library, as well as remote locations on campus. Concealed within the ceiling, a projector displays an interactive image on the table below where students may post events on a community billboard, search the original Julian Street book collection, and engage in social networking.

Mobile furniture and sliding panels allow the space to be easily reconfigured so that it may accommodate various events – from studying to dining and partying.

The post Princeton University Julian Street Library
by Joel Sanders appeared first on Dezeen.

Slideshow: just like the museum we published yesterday, this library in Worcester, England, by architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is covered with shimmering squares of golden metal.

Positioned on the riverbank between the city centre and one of the campuses for Worcester University, the four-storey building contains an academic library for students, a public library, a county archive and a local history centre.

An extruded roof comprising seven rectangular cones divides the building into a conjoined cluster of blocks, which reflect the arrangement of rooms and spaces within.

These chimney-like forms draw light and ventilation into each of the reading rooms, as well as into a central atrium that connects each of the floors.

Balconies and staircases are picked out in ash, while a set of red, yellow and blue-painted volumes are slotted between rooms on one floor to provide a row of informal reading spots.

The building will open in July.

In the last year Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios have also completed a hospital unit for sick or premature babies, which you can see here.

Photography is by Hufton & Crow.

Here’s some more text from the architects:

UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library to open in July

The Hive which will open in July is the UK’s first purpose-built joint-use library serving the University of Worcester and the county that incorporates the county archive, a local history centre, accommodation for the County Archaeologist’s team and a ‘one stop shop’ for the local authority: It’s a pioneering response to the challenge of providing a wide range of public services in an age of austerity whilst promoting social and environmental sustainability.

The distinctive form is a response to the project partners’ aspirations to create a beacon for learning in the city centre, a counterpoint to the Cathedral on the edge of the floodplain to the River Severn.

The Hive forms part of a new city block which incorporates an accessible route connecting the city centre, via the top of the medieval city wall, to the new Castle Street University campus – it is designed to entice passers by to come in and explore.

Sustainability was a high priority throughout: The Hive maximises daylight and natural ventilation via the seven iconic roof cones that echo the undulating ridgeline of the Malverns and the historic kilns of the Royal Worcester pottery.

Water from the river Severn provides peak cooling and locally sources biomass provides heating.

The building is designed to adapt to climate change predicted by UK-CIP to 2050. It has an A rated Energy Performance Certificate and confirmation is awaited on whether it has met or exceeded the requirement to achieve BREEAM Excellent.

The roof structure was designed using award winning software developed for the project which allowed the form to be constructed from solid laminated timber: This generated a saving of more than 2000 tonnes of CO2 compared to the initial design in steel and concrete.

The exterior is clad in a scaley carapace of copper alloy. Inside the palette of concrete and ash is animated by colours drawn from the palette used by Royal Worcester.

The development includes extensive new public realm with both hard landscape (using locally sourced Forrest of Dean Pennant) and planting which draws on indigenous species to create a new and rich habitat for wildlife.

The Hive, which was procured via a PFI process, is a testament to teamwork; from the inspiration of the Project Partners who identified the opportunity to create a generous new public facility to the creativity of the design team and the tenacity of the contractors it demonstrates that by sharing a vision and pulling in the same direction the UK construction industry can deliver extraordinary buildings.

Vital Statistics:
1.34 ha site,
12,371m2 gross external area
£29.7m total construction ex vat, fees, external works and FF+E
£2400/m2
15.8 CO2/m2/yr
4.3m3/m2 at 50 Pa air tightness
40% GGBFS in cement

Team:
Client: University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council
Architect: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
Structural Engineer: Hyder Consulting (UK) Ltd/ Atelier One
M&E Engineer: Max Fordham LLP
Planning Supervisor: Arcadis AYH
Landscape Consultant: Grant Associates
Contractor: Galliford Try Construction
Cladding Consultant: Montresor Partnership
Fire Consultant: Exova Warringtonfire
Access Consultant: All Clear Designs

The public library for an arts centre in South Korea is condensed into a cube at the centre of a room.

American architecture studio N H D M designed the translucent block, dubbed the Library Machine, to store the multimedia archive for the Nam June Paik Art Centre in the city of Yong-In.

Reading areas, computer stations and video screens are integrated inside the cube, while books and paper archives are stored on the shelves between them.

Extra tables and chairs can be placed around the library to provide additional workstations when necessary.

Other interesting libraries we’ve featured recently include one covered in firewood and another made of shelves – see more here.

Photography is c/o Nahyun Hwang and David Eugin Moon of N H D M.

Here’s some more text from the designers:

The Nam June Paik Library is a new public art library in Nam June Paik Art Center in Yong-In, Korea, open to general public on April 15th, 2011. The library was designed by a U.S. based design and research collaborative N H D M / Nahyun Hwang + David Eugin Moon. The library collects, preserves, and provides access to historical and contemporary material related to Nam June Paik and his art. It offers to scholars a space for professional research, and to the local community an open forum for cultural engagement. The library houses and circulates the Center’s Nam June Paik Archives Collection, Nam June Paik Video Archives, and a rare Fluxus Footages Collection, as well as the user generated materials. The design and construction of the library was made possible by City of YongIn and Gyeoggi Province Government’s Small Library Fund.

Inspired by Nam June Paik’s artistic processes, the goal of the project was to design a multi-functional spatial device, which redefines the relationship between library users and information. While the conventional library is characterized by the one directional transmission of information, where the static, centralized, and predefined content is passively received by the readers, the Nam June Paik Library aims to promote non-linear and random access to information, to stimulate production of information beyond consumption and advocates spontaneous expression and juxtaposition of ideas.

The Library Machine located in the center of the library deploys the following 6 architectural and programmatic devices.

1. Scattering
The juxtaposition of the dispersed information produces complexity that contrasts the simple geometric initial form.

2. Non-Textual Content / Off-Site
Objects related to Paik’s work are scattered, plugged, and mapped throughout the surface of the machine. Reprogrammable dynamic media can communicate Paik’s previous works, as well as information on artistic and other happenings from the off-site locations of interest.

3. Physical Engagement
Additional storage areas and unique shelving in the long drawers are incorporated to help the future expansion of the collection, while inducing curiosity, interactivity, and playful engagement.

4. Production Lab
Inside the machine is reading, installation, video laboratories, and a space also for debates and group workshops.

5. “Representation Cells”
Content is also generated by users who can contribute to the information exchange. Small spaces or vitrines are made available for public display.

6. Library “Machinettes,” The Propagation Aides
Parts of the machine can detach as independent modules and can freely travel to other rooms or even outdoors to perform communicative functions, such as video projections or sound performances.

The design attempts to make the intangible physical and to turn a personal experience to a collective and interactive one. Through the Library, the contents become dynamic, and the consumer of information becomes the producer. The collective generation and appreciation of information makes the library experience multi-directional and reciprocal.

Photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre has sent us these photographs of a curved concrete library in San Sebastian with a narrow courtyard driven through its centre.

Completed in 2008 by Ander Marquet Ryan of Spanish architects JAMM, the Carlos Santamaría Centre is located on the campus of the University of the Basque Country.

Timber-panelled walls surround the secluded courtyard, which separates the two-storey building into two asymmetrical halves.

The library’s book collection is housed on two storeys of the larger half, while the smaller part contains separate study rooms and a lecture theatre.

The round concrete exterior walls converge into a point at the front entrance to give the building a teardrop-shaped plan. Students walk through this pointed entrance into a double-height colonnade, where L-shaped timber columns surround a glass wall and roof.

Photographer Iñigo Bujedo Aguirre previously photographed the helter-skelter-like Centro Niemeyer by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, which you can see here.

Here’s some information from the architect:

The Carlos Santamaría Centre, located in San Sebastian is an advanced data centre and library, linked to the Ibaeta University Campus and the result of a competition developed by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).

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The building is conceived as a huge container, shaped from a spontaneous outline following the natural curve of the lot. The line is the wall containing the two blocks arranged in a north-south direction, and its vertex is at the place we consider the most important: the building’s main access, which opens up like a large mouth, pointing the vertex towards the sky.

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The division of the construction into two blocks also makes the creation of a private, inner garden possible, like an extension of the spaces that overlook it. It is a quiet, green area, accessible for strolling, reading and group meetings, always lighted from the south and north, an outdoor counterpoint to urban noise, inside the building.

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With regard to its construction, the principal façade of the building is a curved wall of 25cm made out of white self-compacting concrete. On the other hand, in the garden which divides the building the solution of the facades consists of IPE wood planks.

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Architect: Ander Marquet Ryan, JAAM sociedad de arquitectura s.l.p.
Quantity surveyor: Juncal Aldamizechevarría

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Collaborators: June Gómez Alonso, Emmanuele Pibiri, Naia Landa Méndez, Mario Domínguez Maestre
Structure: Minteguia y Bilbao

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Instalaciones: PGI (project), JG ingenieros (construction).
Developer: Universidad del País Vasco (UPV-EHU)

Construction company: Construcciones Moyua
Date of project: January 2008

End of construction: September 2008
Area: 24.000m²

See also:

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Médiathèque by Tétrarc	Multimedia Centre by Béal & Blanckaert	La Médiateque de Proville by TANK Architectes

A mosaic rainbow of glazed ceramic tiles lines an egg-shaped dome at the heart of a library in Pécs, Hungary.

The six-storey library was designed by Hungarian architects Török és Balázs Építészeti, while the colourful tiles were arranged by ceramic artist Márta Nagy.

Library floors wrap around the curved hub, which is used as a place for quiet inspiration.

A series of small windows and a circular skylight puncture the curving tiled surfaces.

The dome emerges through a decked terrace on the roof of building, surrounded by a top floor children’s library.

Another building on Dezeen covered in colourful ceramic tiles is a Jewish community centre – see our earlier story here.

See also: more buildings in Hungary on Dezeen.

Photography is by Tamás Bujnovszky.

Here’s a bit more information from the architects:

Regional Library and Knowledge Center, Pécs, Hungary

Pécs, a multicultural city with a rich history, was the European Capital of Culture in 2010. For the location of the new library a remote, run down, undeveloped plot was chosen. This meant the new building did not have the constraint or possibility to directly match other buildings. During the design process, I aimed to dynamically synthesize the dualities which appear in many ways.

In the building a “beehive” represents the ideological centre and refers to permanence. This is a place of abstract thinking: a metaphor for the freedom of knowledge and also, in reverse, for the knowledge of freedom. I see beauty in the idea that my response for a knowledge centre is a building where the focus is not on concrete, permanently changing knowledge but on the possibility of thinking: in-other-words, an empty space which can be filled with the thoughts of the people in it.

The ground floor reception room is horizontally open, and the upper floors are, in accordance with their activities, rather introverted. The extensive “beehive”, un-functional in any common sense, connects these differently characterized spaces. In terms of forms, the inner, abstract space is analogous, archaic and organic. The spaces surrounding the “beehive” are the result of rational planning; with their flexibility they express the possibility of change. The facades are defined by the airy, white ceramic-coated glass, which represents the latest technology.

The inner surface of the “beehive” is an independent work of art: The Zsolnay ceramic tiles, with their world-famous eosin coating, refer to the use of local historical characteristics. The dual-use of material is intentional. It is important that an architectural work can be read in different ways: it should be local and international, stylish and traditional, historical and contemporary, but first of all have self-identity.

Client: Municipality of Pécs, Hungary
Location: Universitas utca, 7622 Pécs, Hungary
total net floor area: 13.180 m2
construction cost (landscape included): net 3,8 billion HUF

lead Designer: Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft.
Balázs Mihály, Tarnóczky Tamás, Tatár Balázs
beehive cover: Nagy Márta ceramic artist
fellow architect: Török Dávid, Falvai Balázs, Báger András

interior design: Frank György, Fábián Péter
landscape architecture: Kovács Árpád, Lukács Katalin, Tihanyi Dominika
electrical planning: Nyári Ilona, Krén József, Osztrovszki Emese, Farkas Anikó
mechanical design: Mangel Zoárd, Kovács Zsolt, Kerék Attila
structural design: Volkai János, Ambrus Roland, Dr. Medek Ákos, Komáromi Gergely, Szarka Gergely
glass structures: Dr. Becker Gábor
contractor: GROPIUS Zrt., Csáktornyai Gyula President, CEO, Müller Csaba site manager

Competition First Prize: 2007 March 30
Licensing plan: 2008 May 21
Tender plan: 2008 july 15
Opening: 2010 september

See also:

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Junior Boys School by McBride Charles Ryan	Ravensbourne College by Foreign Office Architects	Community Centre by Manuel Herz Architects