Temple of Knowledge
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Library is a place provided a spirtual separation from the real world, stepping back to explore the world from a different stand point. Louis Kahn described Pantheon as “a world within a world”. Future library should be a space that people may not go in for a specific purpose, like learning or knowing something, but in the end the library’s ambiance attracts people to read books, self-reflect and think. The irreplacable functions of library will further define its existance in coming future. Other side functions will diminish the core essences of library and will turn it to be a attachment to a community centre, a learning resource centre, a café, a market or a museum in foreseeable future. WHAT
The thesis would aim at defining irreplaceable functions of a public library but not adding a long list of social, community or knowledge interexchange/discussions programmes which could be replaced by other facilities in the city. The building scale for the thesis has not been finalized, depending on the site context. It would be a building, but not part of a building attaching to a museum, a community centre, a market, a shopping mall, a book store or a cinema. This thesis would target at redefining the design directions and developing a new kind of public library in high-density urban environment to meet the evolving needs of human society. Potential testing sites for this library could be any sites with busy environment in Hong Kong, where is convenient to reach and has potential demand on a library as a cultural place and facilities. The busy environment would arouse a big contrast with a separated spiritual environment in the library, which is expected to have more fascinating relationships with its irreplaceable functions. Some possible site examples could be high density middle class residential area in Caine Road, busy commercial area in Connaught Road Central or remarkable high density residential and commercial mixed area in Mong Kok. These sites are suitable test case areas because they are surrounded by different typical populations and high density site conditions which could represent characters of Hong Kong. WHY Modern public library started from values and ideas from Enlightenment which encourages pursuit of “individual liberty, equal rights, religious toleration, freedom of speech, freedom of press, the right to education and political participation” by the free use of reason and scientific inquiry. Modern public library system was founded in Britain by the Public Libraries Act in 1850 which legislatively started the creation of universal free access to information and literature. Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris and Stockholm Public Library in Sweden are two main early example of making library spaces, demonstrating the early relationship of book and human. Since knowledge is getting digitalizing and the interests on reading is declining, the number of users and books borrowed from public libraries decreases generally. Someone may question that “Do we still need a library as a building in the city centre?” as people can get most of the knowledge from the internet. To attract more people to library, there is a trend of expanding its social programmes, media types and commercials. Libraries are going to be designed as a place for people to meet, idea exchange and discussions. Examples of this trend could be found in Seattle Central Library and Future Helsinki Central Library. However, this trend will diminish the core essences of library and will turn it to be a component of a community centre, a learning resource centre, a café, a market or a museum in foreseeable future. The decline of libraries could be concluded by two reasons: (1) Some functions are replaceable by new technologies or other places. People can find books, read books, watch movies, listen to lectures and share views at home via internet. (2) Less people have interest on reading books or knowledge. Urban life is too busy. People read tons of daily data and work but have no mood to read a long article. To save the library, the future public library design should reinforce its irreplaceable functions. It should be focused on its cultural significance to the society to enhance the cultural image of a city, and provide a highly spiritual and cultural space for encouraging reading, stimulating thinking and relaxation. It should be a place that people may not go in for a specific purpose, like learning or knowing something, but in the end the library’s ambiance attracts people to read books and think. HOW
This thesis will begin with case studies of top tier libraries in different period of time to trace the trend and thinking of library design development in the history. Based on that, making of future library will be predicted and it will be evaluated in terms of design and its effects to the design development of library to identify the ideal design directions and thinking of the making of future library. I will put these set of new design directions and thinking to different sites to test with different high density urban context. Step 1: Case studies and analysis of selected libraries. Develop a catalog of libraries. Renderings, diagrams and models would be made to test and visualize its design potential in each steps. |
