Change has come to the library: Four architects imagine the Obama presidential library November 22, 2014 – Posted in: books in design, Content, Interior Design, Libraries, Library Architecture

Sketch by Richard Dattner of a potential Obama Presidential Library. As President Barack Obama’s tenure winds down and we mourn the lack of promised change that was to come to America perhaps it is time to look ahead to the future presidential library to be built in his honor. Enter the folks at Guardian US Opinion. They asked four award-winning, firm-founding architects “to sketch and describe their unofficial visions for a possible Obama Presidential Library.…

Transforming Moscow’s Libraries; All 448 of them! October 9, 2014 – Posted in: books in design, Content, Libraries, Library Architecture, public libraries

Dostoyevsky Library Interior Before and After Renovation. Image © Frans Parthesius A beautiful thing is happening to the public libraries of Moscow. Armed with extensive research on the benefits of a vibrant public library system a group comprised of the architectural firm SVESMI, lead by Sverdlov, urban designer Paola Viganò, and the Muscovite bookseller Boris Kupriyanov got the ear of Moscow’s Culture Minister. In a nutshell: the number of libraries per capita in Moscow rivals other European cultural capitals…

Little Free Library Love at the Seattle Design Festival September 10, 2014 – Posted in: Content, Libraries, Library Architecture, product design

This year’s Seattle Design Festival included A Little Free Library Design/Build Competition called Libraries on the Loose! The challenge: To design, build and steward a Little Free Library (LFL) prototype that promotes community and literacy in Seattle’s neighborhoods! The budget was $150 and all entrants had to submit documentation of their efforts including assembly instructions. One goal was to establish an inexpensive prototype that could serve as a template for future LFL builders. Twenty teams entered and the winner was “Spinning Stories” by Johnston…

Reading Room for One August 27, 2014 – Posted in: Books and Art, books in design, Content, Installation, Interior Design, Library Architecture

For the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennale artist Marta Wengorovius teamed with architect Francisco Aires Mateus to produce this little slice of paradise; a reading cabin for one. The simple wood structure is fit for one person, holds one bookshelf and has a raised seating area and that’s it. It is light by a skylight. The artist populated the bookshelf by asking 20 guests to choose three books each for the library. “Sharing this itinerant project creates a…

A stone barn is now the library at Cumbria University April 2, 2014 – Posted in: Libraries, Library Architecture

Built in 1929 this stone barn used to house the student union at University of Cumbria‘s Ambleside Campus. Now with the help of John McAslan + Partners the stone barn has been transformed into the campus library. “Informed by the campus’s setting in a National Park, the architects endeavored to minimize alterations to the existing barn’s stone exterior and added an extension with a pitched roof and large windows overlooking a new courtyard.” And it looks like…