Köpenick Library by Bruno Fioretti Marquez Architekten, Berlin-Köpenick, Germany
Bruno Fioretti Marquez Architekten create a powerful civic presence their central library for the district of Köpenick. Photography by Alessandr Chemollo
View ArticleLibrary and Senior Citizens' Centre by RCR Arquitectes, Barcelona, Spain
RCR Arquitectes’ restrained black gateway building unifies the street with an existing under utilised courtyard. Photography by Eugeni Pons and Hisao Suzuki
View ArticleMusashino Art University Library by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo, Japan
It is the plan of Musashino Art University Library by Sou Fujimoto Architects that brings distinction to the design, combining conceptual clarity with functional rigour. Photography by Edmund Sumner
View ArticleReyner Banham on Stirling's Cambridge History Faculty
Reyner Banham’s essay on the History Faculty, Cambridge, first published November 1968
View ArticleHelmond City Library by Bolles+Wilson, Helmond, The Netherlands
The completion of a library by Bolles+Wilson in The Netherlands raises great expectations – which are not disappointed. Photography by Christian Richters
View ArticleBiblioteca España by Giancarlo Mazzanti & Arquitectos
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
View ArticleVeil and grid: Library by Li Xiaodong, China
The beautiful rippling veil of slim sticks and timber interior ensures this modest communal village library connects with its setting, stimulating both mind and eye
View ArticleStuttgart City Library by Yi Architects
Boldly plundering historical sources, this new library in Stuttgart is both rich in allusion and full of surprises
View ArticleA light touch: Bing Thom's Library in Canada
Daylight and books are often regarded as incompatible, but this library in Metro Vancouver is a poetic and scientific sculpting of light that animates a dramatic interior
View ArticleThe Women's Library by Wright & Wright, London
On the site of a Victorian public baths, a new library and archive illuminates women’s lives and is a model of good practice in environmental regulation
View ArticleBook Mountain: MVRDV's Library in Spijkenisee, Rotterdam
The short shelf life of this Dutch library’s collection enabled MVRDV to turn the spines out to face the town and invite in its inhabitants
View ArticleMecanoo's Central Library in Birmingham
Beyond the flamboyance of its facade, Birmingham’s ambitious new public library is a model of enlightened collaboration between architect and client
View ArticleTaking Root: Joan Maragall Library, Barcelona, Spain, by BCQ Arquitectura
The fragmented, verdant structure of this semi-subterranean library creates a different kind of public space in Barcelonaʼs urban milieu
View ArticleLibrary and Concert Hall in Bodø, Norway by DRDH
In a remote Norwegian town on the edge of the Arctic Circle, a new library and concert hall transcend their cultural brief to become, in effect, the townʼs public realm
View ArticleHelsinki University Library in Finland by Anttinen Oiva Architects
Enticing both town and gown, Helsinki Universityʼs new central library marries scholarliness with commerce, reflecting the changing character of academic institutions and the nature of public space
View ArticleMicro Organism: Hutong infill in Beijing, China, by Standard Architecture
A deft intervention in one of Beijingʼs labyrinthine hutongs attempts to improve amenities without destroying heritage or catalysing gentrification
View ArticleX Marks the Spot: Bibliothèque Alexis de Tocqueville in Caen by OMA
The Bibliothèque Alexis de Tocqueville in Caen combines four separate libraries, with the goal to encourage exchange
View ArticleWell read: Hyundai Card Cooking Library, 2017, and Design Library, 2013 in...
Like the royal libraries of the Joseon dynasty, Hyundai Card’s library series are impressive and valuable repositories of knowledge, but reserved for the use of the privileged, credit card-wielding few
View ArticleBibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale by OMA: Rem Koolhaas, Clement...
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
View ArticleRolex Learning Center by SANAA
Oriel Prizeman examines six recent libraries in the first of a new quarterly series on typology
View ArticleSeashore Library in Beidaihe, China by Vector Architects
The Seashore Library is a subtle Modernist intervention from the next generation of Chinese architects
View Article2006 June: 'Midwest Modesty', Iowa Central Public Library by David...
[ARCHIVE] As part of an ambitious landscape regeneration strategy, Chipperfield brings figure to the city grid through his Iowa Central Public Library
View ArticleAll in the mound: Maya Somaiya Library in Kopargaon, India, by Sameep Padora...
AR Library Highly Commended: in the Maya Somaiya Library, the constraints of the site paved the way for invention
View ArticleThe open book: The Pinch, Shuanghe village, China by Olivier Ottevaere and...
AR Library Highly Commended: community needs, the role of the public domain and disaster relief all coalesce in The Pinch, an imaginative timber structure by Olivier Ottevaere and John Lin of the...
View ArticleSquare the circle: Green Square Library in Sydney, Australia by Stewart...
AR Library Winner: unconventional but uncompromising, Stewart Hollenstein’s Green Square development offers far more than the typical library
View ArticleShelf life: CTLES extension, Bussy-Saint-Georges, France, by Antonini Darmon
AR Library Commended: Antonini Darmon’s extension to the storage facility for Paris’s educational libraries both increases and futureproofs the space
View ArticleReading between the lines: Changsha library, Hunan Province, China, by Neri&Hu
AR Library recalled: while Neri&Hu’s proposal for the Jinyu Community Library in Changsha, China, was initially shortlisted by the judges, Austin Williams’ visit reveals a different story
View ArticleRevisit: Biblioteca Vasconcelos
Mexico City’s national lending library by Alberto Kalach + TAX allows for an unintentional plurality of inhabitation and experience
View ArticleTales of the unexpected: Qatar National Library, Doha, by OMA
Women in Architecture Architect of the Year 2019 shortlist: rising from the Doha desert while also boring beneath its unrelenting dunes, OMA’s Qatar National Library is a series of paradoxes
View ArticleNew Bodleian Library by Giles Gilbert Scott
Archive: October 1940. Editor JM Richards, under the pseudonym James MacQueady, provides sharp criticism of Gilbert Scott’s New Bodleian Library
View ArticlePhillip Exeter library in New Hampshire, USA, by Louis Kahn
Built with ‘the invitation of books’, Louis Kahn’s brick masterpiece is an essay in ‘authentic monumentality’
View ArticleFrom the archive: British Library in London by Colin St John Wilson and MJ Long
In memory of MJ Long who passed away on 3 September, we revisit Sherban Cantacuzino’s study of the designs for the proposed British Library from AR December 1978
View ArticleBinary mode: SHAU’s Microlibrary in Bandung
AR_EA 2016 Finalist: A bid to raise literacy rates in Indonesia, a library fashioned out of ice-cream buckets shelters a more informal community space
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