“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.� -Socrates
A library is a monumental creation of civilization that towers over the individual in its importance. It represent an individual’s fundamental right to acquire knowledge and it binds societies the world over. A good library should be enmeshed in the life of a community reaching out, encompassing and influencing the space and the people around it. It should respond to the present and above all it should be a treasure shared by all.
Bryant Park Reading Room, New York
Open Library, Germany Karo Architekten
A library is a place for learning and enlightenment for all. The modern library has to be more than a stoic silent reading room. The library is more than just about books, it’s an abode where one can savour the joy of media, a place where people of different generations and backgrounds can come together as a community. It needs to serve the community and serve as a focal point of activity reaching out and encompassing and enhancing the surrounding.
The landscape being a key element of the library
Piazza San Cosimato, Trastevere, Rome
Vivid, Contrasting, Lively, Bright, Diverse, Enchanting
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Piazza San Cosimato is home to the traditional open air market that is characteristic of Rome. The vibrant market sells a variety of goods from vibrant fruits to books. For the locals going to the market is to social and communal act and is an essential part of everyday life but in recent years the visitors to the market have declined. The concept was to not only preserve the character of the market but improve the infrastructure encompass the whole of the in one sweeping gesture.
The idea was that the entire piazza will be encompassed by a series of frames that lead to different pavilions and by doing so create different and contrasting urban spaces in-between. From the chaotic hardscape of the market area to the more tempered space catered by the cafĂŠ and finally the meditative, contemplative and sheltered softscape of the final pavilion library. N
Site Plan | 1:500
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Pavilion Library
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The Market The market area was envisioned as a scene of urban chaos. The market stalls swerve to almost create a stadium of sorts and forms a very flexible tiered plaza. The timber frames contrast with hardscape it rests on. The fish and meat market characterized by its bifold doors is set apart from the fruit and vegetable market.
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Market Plan | 1:200
Market Section
Market Section| 1:50
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Fish Market Plan | 1:200 B’
Fish Market Section | 1:100
The Cafe The cafe continues the idea of frames and is inspired by the Hiroshige Museum of Art. The density of frames change from being the least dense in the serving area increasing where the public restrooms are to ensure more privacy.
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Cafe Plan | 1:100
Cafe Section | 1:50
The landscape catered by the cafĂŠ was designed to be intermediate between the market and the library. The floor folds to create tables, seating and pools of water and is planted with trees in-between that will provide shade and comfort from the bright Italian sun.
Open Library Even in this desensitized digital age one still regards the book with great respect and as a symbol of knowledge and learning. The open air library is a place where one can enjoy tempered atmosphere of the piazza while reading a book. The open air library is a book exchange of sorts where donated books as well as books left by others is free for anyone to enjoy. The aim was to not only foster the joy of reading books in but to educate the community on the importance of books. The idea is that the open library will entice the community to become members of the more traditional, adjacent pavilion library
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Open Library Plan | 1:100
Open Library Section | 1:50
Pavilion Library The pavilion library is more traditional in its working. One enters the reading rooms after walking through the open library that grows into the structure. The enclosed reading rooms is a light, airy cantilevering structure nestled between trees. One descends into the more darker and atmospheric repository that holds the main collection of the library
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Reading Room Plan | 1:100
Repository Plan | 1:100
Sections
Pavilion Library Section | 1:50
The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one’s devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life. -Norman Cousins, The Spirit in the South: Stories of Our Grandmothers’ Spirit