Dibuka - Setswana word for books

Dibuka is today the biggest francophone multimedia library in South Africa with a collection of 17 000 documents, including books, DVDs and CDs. Fifteen years after its creation, the need was felt to reposition Dibuka according to library uses that have evolved over the years. The aim of renovating Dibuka was to come up with an open and welcoming place in which multiple activities can take place and where the idea of meeting and the notion of experience prevail.

The Johannesburg-based design firm Urban Works was commissioned to redesign the space accordingly. Urban Works is an inter-disciplinary studio that has been involved

in various projects, from city planning for places such as Ivory Park, to smaller scale projects such as the design of the Flame of Democracy at Constitution Hill. Urban Work’s priority is to transform and reinvent existing spaces to fit the evolution of uses and society. Urban Works worked closely with The Coloured Cube to create tailormade furniture for the library, using local materials and coming up with high-quality products. The Coloured Cube’s mission is to promote the local makers in Johannesburg, bringing together a range of creatives, businesses and property developers through the love of making.

One of the radical changes with Urban Work’s proposition for Dibuka has been to bring more luminosity into the library to turn it into a comfortable environment with natural daylight, where one can read, study or just relax. The choice of clear wooden furniture and pastel colour adds to the cosiness of the place while bringing a playful feel to it. Regarding the overall arrangement plan, it allows to highlight Dibuka’s specialised book collection, creating specific spaces for French learning material, children’s literature and bande dessinée (literally ‘drawn strips’, it refers to the tradition of Franco-Belgian comics, also known as BDs). Added to that, the mezzanine has been transformed into a cinema loft that can also host talks and panel discussions.

Images on the walls of Dibuka, extracted from the comic strips Aya de Yopougon and Le Monde d’Edena, add the final touch, ensuring that the entirely revamped Dibuka multimedia library is an inviting space for all. www.ifas.org.za

A FEW WORDS BY THIRESH GOVENDER FROM URBAN WORKS

“Contemporary libraries needto be more than a place toread, collect and store books.They need to cultivate asense of discovery, learningand dialogue. It also needsto confront the assault ofdigital media in eroding itsvalue as a physical placeto meet and engage. Therecent refurbishment of theDibuka Library at AllianceFrançaise sought to bringlightness and fun to the spaceto make it more functionalto a multiplicity of differentlibrary user needs. As such,attention has been given toa children’s reading area, acomic book reading lounge,cinema, group and individualstudy area and digital media.Careful attention has beenpaid to creating differenttypes of user comforts – fromwalking through the space,browsing, siting, studying ordialogue. Modular furnitureallows for the compact spaceto meet multiple user-centredrequirements. Plywood, astrong, readily-available andlight material, is used forall new joinery with a boldand bright colour palettecomplementing the lightplywood grain, animating thelibrary interior.”www.urbanworks.co.za