Here is the link, via Kat, and that is a design concept (not real) for the Stockholm Library.
Wall of knowledge
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Much less impressive when you realize it could fit on a couple of dozen DVDs
How do you reach the books on the lower shelves?
Terrible design. Arranging the stacks into a sphere would minimize the average distance to obtain a book. A cube isn’t too much worse. But the only thing worse than putting them on a plane would be to arrange them in one long line.
Asimov was a genius, but if you read “Foundation” you realize how much science fiction (and, by extension, planning for the future) is limited by present reality. Encylopedia Galactica as a paper product??? Gimme a break!
If any kid should climb over the partition they will learn about gravity very quickly.
That concept looks suspiciously like a part of a “fueling facility” encountered in a PC ‘Star Wars’ RPG.
Does no one recognize the symbolic reference.
The pit is to prevent the “animals” of information from getting access to the “observers.”
It is the Zoo; and – why?.
And – it is a wall of information, not knowledge.
Information is not knowledge
Knowledge is not wisdom
Wisdom is not understanding
T S Eliot had a different way of conveying that.
Looks like the ‘knowledge abyss’ to me…
As I don’t see anyone actually interacting with the books, I would say that this is a very realistic depiction of how this facility would be used.
I see two things–kind of–:
Massive sci-fi bulbous behemoth; and a Frank Gehry-esque bland carnival of shapes.
“This is a concept rendering by architecture students.”
There’s a reason architects are seldom allowed to actually build buildings before they are 55.
Functionally, I can see a couple goals for a library of the future. First, to prepare for the EMP to have a physical copy of all the useful information. Maybe in the future a book is produced after a work has proven itself over time.
Second, maybe there needs to be a place where people can actually go check a reference. Maybe physical books are more appropriate for this. Wikipedia is pretty good, but what happens when noone alive personally remembers what actually happened and there is no physical reference from the period and the authors of the history are all dead or government employees?
Well, you obvously wouldn’t want a central library. You’d want them distributed and standardized and all containing all the same books. So, I’m picturing a large circular track with robots that ferry books around an internal raceway.
It’s not that impractical, folks. Most large libraries don’t let you browse the stacks — anyone been to the british library or TGB paris? You ask for books and they fetch them.
It is ugly and uninviting, if you ask me, but presumably this is the entrance or something, and somewhere there is a space to read.
Now that library users are no longer forced to rely on the library as an irreplaceable information access portal, they are re-thinking their expectations of it. Oddly enough, technology has left the library’s utility as place at least as important as it has ever been to the people who use it. Infrastructure is important to library users, and decent libraries give them access to both print and electronic sources in an environment that invites their enjoyment. Look at the picture, though, and try to imagine a library user feeling anything but alienated and intimidated by that silly wall of books, and the monolithic sterility of the public space.
Is that sunlight coming from above? The books will be exposed to sunlight? I hope someone digitize them really fast, before they wear out.
If nothing else, the Persians will choose their next words more carefully.
One more reason people will be using kindle and visiting this place on the museum tour.
This is a concept rendering by architecture students. It is a chance for students to challenge themselves, be creative, and show off a little bit.
Me: I need an architect. Show me your portfolio. Student: I can design buildings that look like they are out of “Star Wars”. Me: Next!
It’s not that impractical, folks. Most large libraries don’t let you browse the stacks…
Even at thost libraries, the staff go into the stacks. Why pick a design that makes the average fetch so arduous?
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