Libraries are at a cusp: poised uneasily between the legacy of Gutenberg and the byte of the digital age - Michael Brawne
The historical perception of the library is being undermined by the digital revolution. Some critics say that, in the current information age, the traditional repositories are becoming obsolete mausoleums for books. The contemporary library now has to provide a multitude of services, often at the heart of a community, while remaining flexible enough to adapt to ever-increasing technological demands.
Library Builders presents over forty contemporary libraries, ranging in scale from the grandeur of national libraries to small, intimate community libraries, from public libraries to university libraries, which feature the different qualities of both the traditional bibliotheque and the futuristic mediatheque. It examines the potential future of this building type in the twenty-first century, with ever-changing demands for supply and dissemination of information.
The wider issues of current library design are addressed in a selection of essays by prominent library builders and critics: Michael Brawne, John Olley, Paul Lukez, Michael Spens, Richard MacCormac and Merrill Elam.
Among the many library types presented here are the national: Dominique Perrault's Bibliotheque Nationale de France and Colin St John Wilson's British Library; the city: Richard Meier's City Library in The Hague, Bolles-Wilson's Munster City Library, Mecanoo's Almelo Public Library; and the academic: Sir Norman Foster and Partners' Squire Law Library, Cambridge and Hodgetts + Fung's unorthodox Towell Library at UCLA. Other prominent architects featured include: Jose Ignacio Linazasoro, Moore Ruble Yudell, Antoine Predock, Aldo Rossi, Moshe Safdie, Schwartz/Silver, Scogin Elam and Bray, and James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates.
- ISBN10 0471977357
- ISBN13 9780471977353
- Publish Date 23 April 1997
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 23 September 2003
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Wiley-Academy
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English