Cabinet , Vault and Luminous Forest : Complexity and Contradiction in Green Library Architecture

Abstract

In this essay I consider the many promising synergies between the design of the contemporary li- brary and imperatives of building in a more sustainable manner. I begin by describing tenants of ‘green’ building, for example the need to adopt highly resourceful design approaches to heat- ing, cooling, lighting and ventilating. I next observe certain design attributes and qualities that many celebrated libraries share, with an emphasis on the architectural meaning that accrues when projects are designed that support immersion in study and processes of learning, enable the pleasurable experience of occupying a space with others engaged in their own intellectual enterprises, and assume distinctive and memorable character as a function of the configura- tion of elements deployed in space: walls, columns, desks, stacks, light. Finally, I endeavor to integrate these considerations in advocating for a symbolically and culturally meaningful, spa- tially rich, highly functional and deeply green approach to library design. Such an approach prioritizes optimized, highly resourceful building performance in the service of experiential and intellectual delight. Library architecture in this sense is not a simple, open book (or a ‘one-liner’) and is instead a complex narrative replete with layered and interwoven passages.