Library Builders

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 bibliothèque and the futuristic mediathèque. 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 Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Colin St John Wilson's British Library; the city: Richard Meier's City Library in The Hague, Bolles-Wilson's Münster 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: José Ignacio Linazasoro, Moore Ruble Yudell, Antoine Predock, Aldo Rossi, Moshe Safdie, Schwartz/Silver, Scogin Elam and Bray, and James Stirling Michael Wilford & Associates.

MICHAEL BRAWNE is a practising architect. His work has concerned itself with museums, galleries, temporary exhibitions, libraries and university buildings, including three museums in Germany, and the National Library of Sri Lanka. He has also acted as a UNESCO consultant on library design. He taught at the University of Cambridge for fourteen years and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Bath. He has made frequent contributions to architectural journals and has written a number of books, including From Idea to Building: Issues in Architecture. JOHN OLLEY was an engineer, physicist and biologist before turning to architecture. He has taught in the schools of architecture at the universities of Dundee, Bristol and Cambridge. Currently, he directs the programme of teaching and research in the History and Theory of Architecture, Urbanism and Landscape at University College Dublin. He has published work in this field and in the field of ecological architecture and planning: as co-author of The Climatic Dwelling, and curator and editor of Architecture in Ireland in the Twentieth Century with the Deutsche Architektur-Museum. PAUL LUKEZ has taught at MIT, Roger Williams University and the BAC since opening his Boston office in 1991. He is committed to bridging the gap between research and practice by integrating in-house research in built projects. He was included in the selection for Progressive Architecture's 'Young Architects', and was awarded a NE/AIA Honor Award and a Graham Foundation Grant for housing/education research. MICHAEL SPENS is an architect and critic. He is author of The Recovery of the Modern, William Alsop: Le Grand Bleu, Marseilles and Viipuri Library: Alvar Aalto. He was Editor of Studio International 1982-89 and has won several architectural design awards. RICHARD MACCORMAC is a senior partner of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard. He is involved in the design of all the practice's projects - a list which includes the Cable & Wireless College, Coventry; the Garden Quadrangle, St Johns College, Oxford; the Bowra Building, Wadham College, Oxford; Burrell's Fields, Trinity College, Cambridge and the Ruskin Library, Lancaster University. An internationally respected architect, he has also taught, lectured and published many articles on urban design and architectural theory. Formerly a member of the Royal Fine Arts Commission 1990-95, and President of the RIBA 1991-93, he is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Commissioner for English Heritage and a Royal Academician. He was awarded the CBE in 1994. MERRILL ELAM is a principal of Scogin Elam and Bray Architects in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work is widely published and has received national and regional awards. She is a founding member and past president of the Architectural Society of Atlanta and is on the Board of Directors at Art Papers. She has taught at Yale, Harvard and the University of Virginia, and lectured at numerous universities throughout the USA. Other titles in this series published by Academy Editions include: Museum Builders, Theatre Builders and the forthcoming Modern Church Builders.