Library: The Latest Architecture and News

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Mecanoo and MAYU Architects+ have begun construction on the new Tainan Public Library in Taiwan. The joint proposal was selected as a winner of a competition by the Tainan City Government held in February 2016. The proposal’s program hosting people of all ages, combined with its distinctive stepped façade will serve as a key addition to Tainan's cultural landscape. The design has gone through revisions with updated drawings released by Mecanoo.

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Adjaye Associates have announced the design of a new 50,000 square foot library and event center in Winter Park, Florida, which will serve as a new civic hub and will compliment the nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Park. The $30 million building also includes an 8,500 square foot civic center, combining as a manifestation of the city’s aspirations for library services.

“Winter Park’s vision for this project truly embraces the continued evolution of the library in the 21st century,” said Sir David Adjaye. “With a diverse program that recognizes it as a critical piece of cultural infrastructure, this will be a dynamic space for shared education, recreation, and interaction.”

Planning approval has been granted for the design of the first new building at Lambeth Palace in London for approximately 200 years – a new library and archive designed by Wright & Wright Architects. The building is intended to protect the priceless Lambeth Palace Library collection, second only to that of the Vatican and established in 1610 by Archbishop Bancroft, from any potential flooding and consolidate the wealth of rare artifacts and knowledge into a cohesive “portal of knowledge.”

“Wright & Wright and the whole team have responded to the exacting and challenging brief to achieve an outcome which will protect and preserve the collection; allow us to make them more accessible than ever before; be as environmentally friendly as possible; while creating a beautiful building which will be wonderful to work in and visit," said Declan Kelley, Director of Libraries and Archives of the Church of England.

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The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) have awarded Montreal’s Bibliothèque du Boisé with the annual Green Building Award for 2017. Designed by the trio of Consortium Labonté Marcil, Cardinal Hardy and Eric Pelletier architectes, the library is situated in the city’s Saint-Laurent district, and received the distinction as an example of “buildings that are environmentally responsible and promote the health and wellbeing of users.”

"The library offers a variety of beautifully lit and welcoming spaces throughout, maximizing daylight and views and the use of natural elements, such as wood, to create an environment that contributes to health and wellbeing,” said the jury. “Their approach to high-performance building through whole systems design and strategy has resulted in an impressive achievement.”

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The State Library of Victoria in Melbourne has tapped Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects with local partners Architectus and Andronas Conservation Architecture to lead in the design of a $88.1 million redevelopment plan, Vision 2020. The scheme will return 40% more space to public use, aiming to “unlock possibilities, create connections and act as a framework” for the future evolution of Australia’s oldest and busiest library.

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Steven Holl Architects have revealed plans for a new library and campus design in Malawi, coinciding with the project’s approval by The Miracle for Africa Foundation. To be constructed of local stone, bamboo and concrete, the library will provide 66,000 square feet (6,132 square meters) of study and gathering space to the community.

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The new Hunters Point Community Library, designed by Steven Holl Architects, has topped out. Located along the East River in Long Island City, New York, the 22,000 square foot library will add a new community-devoted space to the waterfront, while serving as a new icon that can be seen from across the river in Manhattan.

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The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) has named Schmidt Hammer Lassen's Dokk1 Library in Aarhus, Denmark as the winner of the Public Library of the Year Award 2016.

By beating out the SOM-designed Chinatown branch of the Chicago Public Libary; the Geelong Library & Heritage Centre in Geelong, Australia, designed by ARM architecture; and the Success Public Library by Bollig Design Group; Dokk1 became the first Danish library to win the award.

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The city council of the Flemish city of Aalst have awarded KAAN Architecten with the commission for a new library and home of the Academy of Performing Arts. The building will also integrate the existing “Pupillenschool” (formerly a military school for children) to anchor the new tenant into the Belgian town’s rich history. The complex will be located at the corner of Oude Graanmarkt and Espalnadestraat, becoming a new cornerstone project where the many communities of Aalst can gather, learn and engage in cultural activities.

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The British Library has continued to release images from its digitized collection, now bordering over one million images on public image-sharing platform Flickr, reports Quartz. Since 2013, the institution’s “Mechanical Curator” has been randomly selecting images or other pages from over 65,000 public-domain books from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

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