Ground floor plan, Eltham Public Library.
Image: Gregory Burgess Architects
Section looking north (top) and section looking west (bottom), Eltham Public Library.
Image: Gregory Burgess Architects
Undulating surfaces in the reading room ceiling.
Photo: Trevor Mein
Organic forms and geometry are used throughout the Eltham Public Library.
Photo: Trevor Mein
The information desk is flooded with light from above.
Photo: Trevor Mein
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DIFFERENT LOOKS FOR BOOKS
by Michael J. Crosbie and Merrill Elam, FAIA
http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/today.html
http://www.ArchitectureWeek.com/2004/0811/design_1-1.html
Our historically romantic notion of the library is that
of mellow book-lined rooms creating discrete places for
reading, browsing, and study: the book defining the
architecture. Such a mental image is valid for good
reason. The book defining the space of architecture has
a long history.
In medieval monastic libraries, book-lined cabinets or
cells provided individual study spaces within greater
structures. The 1475 painting, "St. Jerome in his
Study" by Antonello da Messina, illustrates this
beautifully. In baroque monastic libraries, sensuous
walls and piers of books created fluid spaces with the
carefully controlled natural light to dramatic effect.
In Paris, at the Bibliotheque Saint-Genevieve of 1850
and the Bibliotheque Nationale of 1868, both by Henri
Labrouste and both highly innovative in their use of
light and application of structure, the walls are
multitiered rows of books. As late as 1928, Gunnar
Asplund was lining the great rotunda at the Stockholm
Public Library with books.
... full story continues online (18 images):
http://www.ArchWeek.com/2004/0811/design_1-1.html
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