The Atlanta Central Library by Marcel Breuer, currently slated for replacement.. Image via Docomomo
Like many Brutalist buildings in America, the Central Library in Atlanta by Marcel Breuer is facing demolition, reports The Architect's Newspaper. Completed in 1980 with a 300-seat theater, restaurant and 1 million books, the building exemplifies Breuer’s sensibilities, with its bush-hammered concrete panels and Bauhaus-inspired forms. However, over the years the building has fallen into disrepair, with its theater closing in the mid-1990s, and the restaurant closing a few years later. In 2002, the city spent $5 million on restoration. Even so, in 2008, voters approved a $275 million bond referendum, which included a proposal to replace the library by Breuer with another. Despite protests from preservationists, the building’s future is uncertain, with voters clearly calling for a new library building.
The latest video in French architect and filmmaker Vincent Hecht’sJapanese Collection series features the Gifu Media Cosmos by Toyo Ito. The library/gallery features an undulating wooden ceiling and multiple large, suspended translucent funnels that define areas for different activities. A series of intermittent openings in the roof allows natural light into the space.
From community meeting hubs to secluded refuges, places to learn and places to study, libraries can be so much more than just a place to a check out a book. With this in mind, we’ve rounded-up 15 awe-inspiring libraries, including a Canadian church that was converted into a library, the first library in Muyinga, Burundi – built using participatory design and local materials – and the largest academic library in Finland. See what makes each of the libraries unique after the break.
In May 2015, Shenzhen Art Museum and Shenzhen Library organized an international design competition for their new homes in Longhua District. 134 firms submitted concept proposals for the first stage, eight firms were selected to enter the second phase competition in July, among them OMA, Steven Holl, Mecanoo, OPEN, KSP, and others. Below is OPEN’s competition entry for the second phase.
After an international competition, the contract for the extension and renovation of the Main Library at the University of Graz in Austria has been awarded to Atelier Thomas Pucher. The project, located at the heart of the campus, includes the addition of a 430 student auditorium; 650 reading/work areas; study and examination rooms; and administrative and storage areas. Read more about the winning design proposal after the break.
The Architectural Review is seeking the most exciting cultural buildings in the world completed in the last 5 years – from museums to performance spaces, galleries to libraries. This is your chance to be recognised on the global stage as a leading designer of cultural projects!
The Municipality of Varna and the Chamber of Architects in Bulgaria have launched a competition open to architects worldwide to design the new Varna Regional Library. Varna, the third-largest city in Bulgaria, has lacked a proper library building for years, and the library’s collection of over 860,000 items is spread across six different buildings in the city. The new competition aims to create a single space where the collection can be brought together, while creating an attractive public space in the city’s centre.
Welcome to The Long(ish) Read: a new AD feature which uncovers texts written by notable essayists which resonate with contemporary architecture, interior architecture, urbanism or landscape design. In this essay, written in 1931, Walter Benjamin narrates the process of unpacking his library. All in boxes, he takes the reader through elements of his book collection: the memories attached to them, the importance he placed on the act of 'collecting' and the process of accumulation, and how objects like books inhabit a space.
As the longest open-air gallery in the world, the East Side Gallery in Berlin is undoubtedly a popular destination for art enthusiasts, historians, and tourists alike. Covered in political artwork, the Eastern side of the largest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall has a strong historic as well as aesthetic presence. The other side, however, seems much more barren and abandoned.
With this contrast in mind, architects Emiliano Lareu and Marie de Testa have developed an idea to overcome the sense of desolation found on the opposite side of the wall. Though the designs are only a concept, they are easily imagined in the context of Berlin’s greater cityscape.
Inspiring designs across the United States, the winning entries aimed to envision a library that could both recognize the President by displaying a collection of mementos from his life and provide the basis for community programs. Contestants were asked to consider the building's context within the city of Chicago to generate a speculative proposal that not only fosters learning and exploration, but also inspires public discussion. To further encourage creativity, the library's program was unspecified, allowing participants to decide how to incorporate these civic and educational elements in their designs.
Ultimately, a distinguished panel selected two winners and three honorable mentions emerged from the competition. The winning proposals and honorable mentions are as follows:
With Birmingham's new public library opening last week, Mecanoo's latest large-scale public building has received mixed reviews from critics in the UK. Check out the critical responses from Hugh Pearman, The Telegraph's Stephen Bayley, The Guardian's Oliver Wainwright, The Observer's Rowan Moore, and The Financial Times' Edwin Heathcote after the break...
In 2003, BOLLES + WILSON won a national competition that gained them commission of the new Luxemburg National Library (BnL Bibliothèque Nationale de Luxembourg). After years of hibernation, the 39,000 square meter library will break ground in 2014.
Follow us after the break for more analysis on the library...
https://www.archdaily.com/425750/bnl-bibliotheque-nationale-de-luxembourg-bolles-wilsonJose Luis Gabriel Cruz
The Internet is now the library of the past. Where the public library has historically served as the primary source of information gathering and dissemination, we now look to this new virtual, infinitely large library that can be accessed anywhere at any time as the Library of the present.
As a result, the primary roles of today’s physical libraries have shifted. Libraries of the past focused primarily on individualized information consumption. Communal aspects of interaction and information dissemination now represent the core mission of the library when information is more easily accessible. The silent grand beaux-arts reading rooms of New York or Boston have of the past been transformed into flexible communal “living rooms” in Seattle.
