Rebuilding the Ruins

The library typology has been experiencing a sort of obsolescence over the past few years. In the years before the pandemic, public interest in the typology seems to be lost to the ever-growing reach of the internet. Aided by the rise of the COVID pandemic, the obsolescence of the library seems all but a done deal. The competition’s challenge is to design a micro-library that would help solve this issue and at the same time provide apt infrastructure for those who still need and use libraries (or in this case, public libraries).

I imagined the library as a sort of community program that will allow people to come to the library and be connected to their community while sharing collective knowledge (essentially a localized version of the internet). To a more ambitious extent, I imagined it (the library) as a global tool of intellectual reinvigoration essentially allowing people to be interconnected through the library and its social and intellectual sharing programs. This initiative essentially creates a secondary avenue for people to share their work, and their research, essentially a secondary avenue for intellectual discourse apart from the internet, hence the concept and its design.

The idea behind the design is simple: address the immediate issue (i.e. the brief) and provide an expansion solution that essentially future-proofs the design (or at least allows for the reintegration of libraries into society one way or another).

The concept behind the library is to revive the ambitious concept of The Great Library of Alexandria. In a way, this concept already exists in today’s world and is called ‘The Internet’. However, the internet has increased the reliance of people on it and has detached our society from the core of learning and storing knowledge. It has since become a tool that has effectively stunted intellectual growth and critical thinking. Therefore, it was only logical to use the concept in a different context; one that would attract people to come to the infrastructure of the library and contribute to it like in the days of old, hence the name, Alexandria’s Foundation.

The aesthetic of the design is that of an antique column (inspired by the concept). The idea behind it is to create this intrigue towards the design. Instead of designing it in a manner that only architects will appreciate, the aesthetic hinges on the antique aesthetic preferences of the masses. The design is easily digestible by anyone and it’s familiar which allows them to feel comfortable inside the space.

The problem with the internet (that the pandemic exposed) is that while all the information is there, there are always forces or parties that wish to monopolize information behind paywalls. This solution will not only help address the lack of free-flowing information but the source of information as well. This design aims to hand the control of information back to our society, and also aims to encourage community-based information sharing.

Another issue that the project has is the built-in obsolescence of the design. The pandemic will eventually end, and the use of the library might be neglected once more, hence, the expansion solution. The design comes in three phases, the first phase, follows the brief. It can house 4 people (more, if the users mind their activities) and follows religiously the program set on the brief. The design has 4 floors: the ground floor houses the collaboration area and the donation/exchange shelves (located on the exterior of the design). The second floor houses the research area, a place to work and contribute to the existing collected knowledge of the library (libraries). It’s a place to plug in and allows the users to collect from the shared information or to contribute to the shared information. The third floor is the designated reading area. It’s located on the third floor to allow for better vistas and to zone for more privacy (or introversion, if you will). It’s a space away from the possible noise generated from the ground floor and is stocked with the current rotation of books (not unlike a full library). The fourth floor, nicknamed The Perch, is a mixed-use roof deck that allows for an alternative reading area or the library’s attraction and social agenda. Should the library be installed in a public place, The Perch is an area to engage with the surroundings to attract more people to use the infrastructure. Written works of both prose and poetry can be read at The Perch (ala reading version of Shakespeare at the Park or the literary version of The Masked Singer) to fill the immediate vicinity with a phantom sound of prose or poetry that’s intended to remind them of the fun of reading. While this area of the design is surely ambitious, it does allow for more engagement with its surroundings and increases the probability of the space being used. This initiative is also a way to aid the completion of the project’s base goals.

The expansion concept, or Phase II, was intended to further contextualize the library to its surroundings. It operates as an addition to the base model as an intended solution to the obsolescence parameter. Should the design be successful, then the issue would then be that there isn’t space for the increased volume. Furthermore, it would be odd (however intended) to have an antique column just sprout out of nowhere, especially in a public square, a park, a mall, etc., hence, the contextual expansion. Designed for both indoor and outdoor use, the expansion dresses the library as either a column under construction or as an exhibit in a museum (both of which are in line with the concept of reviving The Great Library of Alexandria). It was intended as such to double down on the participatory aspect of the design and to further the initiative of attracting the public back to use the library. Though out of the brief, I believe that the addition of this design helps solve the problem of the typology’s obsolescence further and that it helps give the design solution more depth.

Phase III, or the future culmination of the design, is to create sprouting libraries using the Phase I & II concepts. This idea stemmed from conceptualizing and contextualizing the aftermath of the pandemic. People will want to engage in more social aspects as the pandemic ends, at the same time, there will be a myriad of open spaces due to the many shifts of space during the pandemic (i.e. the relocation of stores, the worldwide initiatives to create more public space, etc.). This is perhaps the most ambitious part of the design since it relies on building upon the base of the concept. Since the initial idea of the concept is to recreate The Great Library in a modern context, this phase allows for the construction of a structure atop combined Phase I & II structures. The architecture that will be built atop the existing structures is not defined. The design simply affords the expansion area to the community should they wish to have a permanent public library that can share and dispense information by the era.

The result of the design (considering that all 3 phases are completed) is a public library that is connected to, either other cities or better yet, other countries that all share an initiative to make information available for all. The best part is that there’s a willing exchange of information and resource. It’s not monopolized behind paywalls nor is it hidden in inaccessible places. It will be situated here in a new type of library infrastructure that doesn’t step on the current infrastructure, but builds on it and updates it for the current generation.