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Library Builders
Book by Academy Editions
- GenresArchitecture
224 pages, Hardcover
First published April 25, 1997
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 30, 2025
3.6/5: a wide variety of quality
Architects know how to design, so it makes sense that they'd know how to design a book too. This one is real damn pretty: glossy full-page well-crafted photos, beautiful layouts, etc. They also give a wire variety of libraries here from at least 4 continents, which makes it far more fun not in just a way to compare building styles but even to compare writing styles.
There's an excellent essay near the beginning about the character of a library, both inside and out, matching the characters in books themselves. This theme keeps going in the better-written essays and summaries of libraries...kudos to Scogin/Elam/Bray for really leaning into this, even if I thought the designs themselves are just okay. There's bad summaries/essays in here too that either go full technical or decide to whip a thesaurus around, to be fair, but that happens. And there's always a few hidden gems...in the initial essays, someone brings up the importance of libraries being open to the public while also being intimate private spaces. It lets you keep that in mind as you're looking at the rest of the book and seeing what libraries succeed and fail.
Some fail hard. The exteriors sometimes clash with the character of the neighborhood (Granada). Some look locked off, even with a good interior (Madrid). Some are straight-up office building boring (Osaka and Paris), others too wacky (UCLA). But most are nice and, in some cases, straight up beautiful. Toledo matches its surroundings, Vancouver's reading nooks are unique and genius, Los Alamos is shaped perfectly, Phoenix has perfect lighting and a great exterior, Surrey's is a great use of wood and forestry, Newnham's rare books spot knows the right amount of playfulness. Darwin College is my favorite: perfect use of wood, perfect use of existing structure, perfect location, and takes advantage of natural light in their reading areas perfectly. I could live there.
Architects know how to design, so it makes sense that they'd know how to design a book too. This one is real damn pretty: glossy full-page well-crafted photos, beautiful layouts, etc. They also give a wire variety of libraries here from at least 4 continents, which makes it far more fun not in just a way to compare building styles but even to compare writing styles.
There's an excellent essay near the beginning about the character of a library, both inside and out, matching the characters in books themselves. This theme keeps going in the better-written essays and summaries of libraries...kudos to Scogin/Elam/Bray for really leaning into this, even if I thought the designs themselves are just okay. There's bad summaries/essays in here too that either go full technical or decide to whip a thesaurus around, to be fair, but that happens. And there's always a few hidden gems...in the initial essays, someone brings up the importance of libraries being open to the public while also being intimate private spaces. It lets you keep that in mind as you're looking at the rest of the book and seeing what libraries succeed and fail.
Some fail hard. The exteriors sometimes clash with the character of the neighborhood (Granada). Some look locked off, even with a good interior (Madrid). Some are straight-up office building boring (Osaka and Paris), others too wacky (UCLA). But most are nice and, in some cases, straight up beautiful. Toledo matches its surroundings, Vancouver's reading nooks are unique and genius, Los Alamos is shaped perfectly, Phoenix has perfect lighting and a great exterior, Surrey's is a great use of wood and forestry, Newnham's rare books spot knows the right amount of playfulness. Darwin College is my favorite: perfect use of wood, perfect use of existing structure, perfect location, and takes advantage of natural light in their reading areas perfectly. I could live there.
Displaying 1 of 1 review