PREV ARTICLE
FULL ISSUE
PREV FULL ISSUE
V25 2022 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE NEW LIBRARY: BOOKS YES, BUT MORELibraries have always been about more than books. They are at the core of their mission, but like The E-Sylum it's also about bringing people together, expanding knowledge, and making the world a better place for everyone. As a Pittsburgh native, I think of the young Scottish immigrant who found welcome at a free library provided by a wealthy neighborhood resident; when he later came into wealth himself, Andrew Carnegie "paid it forward" by endowing large libraries all across the country. Here's an article about a new library housing 5 million books, but with most of its floorspace devoted to community space. -Editor 
Popping up on the edge of the largest park in Shanghai, the city's newest library looks a bit like a towering cruise ship sailing through the canopy of trees below. Covering more than 1.2 million square feet across seven stories and two additional pavilions below, the Shanghai East Library is a giant vessel in its own right. It carries not only books and the kinds of study spaces libraries have always had, but a variety of community, social, and cultural spaces that show how the library as an institution is evolving. Designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, the library is one of the largest in the world, and expects 10,000 visitors a day. Chris Hardie, the firm's design director, says both the city and the design team wanted to ensure the project wasn't just a warehouse for the 4.8 million books in the library's collection, which is essentially what the city's current central library is.
For Shanghai Library East, the designers flipped that balance, making more than 80% of the square footage into non-book spaces—reading tables and study rooms, performance venues and lecture halls, cafes and gardens. Hardie says the design is intended to celebrate the library as a space of knowledge sharing and community.
To read the complete article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
|