Library in a Shipping Container April 8, 2013

Welcome to The Amin Library in Batu, Indonesia, a new eight-room public library and clinic designed by dpavilion architects and made entirely out of recycled shipping containers! Eight containers in all were used with each color corresponding to a different function. Green – main lobbyBlue – entertainment and popular booksRed – extends out as a canopy over an open-air circular reading terrace, and holds the science and technology booksYellow – women’s reading room. images © ganny gozaly –…

house with bookshop and cafe March 5, 2013

Nothing like retiring to a nice vacation spot outside of Tokyo and asking your architect to build “a house with a bookshop and a cafe where neighbors and visitors can stop by.”It’s called the Izu Book Cafe and it also doubles as the home of a newly retired couple. It was designed by Atelier Bow-Wow. Selling books out of your home is far from a new idea, think of the throngs that abandoned a retail presence to…

Rem Koolhass Goes Back to the Library March 4, 2013

Seattle Central Library. Photo Hoffman Construction He’s back! Hoping to build on the tremendous success of the Seattle Central Library, Rem Koolhaas and the OMA team are back. This time they’re in Qatar to build the National Library. As ArchDaily said in they’re look at the Seattle Central library project: The Seattle Central Library redefines the library as an institution no longer exclusively dedicated to the book, but as an information store where all potent…

Books in a Barn January 11, 2013

Nestled in the beautiful Brandywine Valley in Pennsylvania is the Baldwin Book Barn. Yep, an old fashion barn filled with books. The 4-story stone barn built in the early 19th century currently holds over 300,000 books and at least one cat. Founder’s William and Lilla Baldwin started in the book business in 1934 in Wilmington, DE. In 1946 they moved to “The Barn”. Floor plan of the Book Barn

The bookshelf takes over the library! October 3, 2012

Here is the redesigned Musashino Art University Library in Tokyo. There are bookshelves everywhere! Designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto who based the project on “a series of independent rectilinear book stacks, dispersed to create a field – or forest – of monolithic blocks. Varying in size, with some large enough to contain essential services and ancillary spaces, the blocks promoted what the architect described as ‘an instinct to wander’, recalling how in his experience libraries are places…