On a complex site, in the historic centre of Dublin, you are invited to design a new public library.
A public library is a community resource, a civic space for social gathering, for collective and individual learning. Access to the library is freely available to all citizens, with facilities for informal meetings, book clubs and book launches, poetry readings and writing groups.
The contemporary library is a multi-functional cultural resource, closely connected to its urban context and social environment. The project site is in public ownership, currently derelict, part of a complex urban block, close to the mediaeval city wall and adjacent to Dublin Castle.
Dublin has a literary culture with notable library buildings included in its architectural heritage.
Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, whose architectural studio is based in Dublin, have designed several library buildings, with two new libraries currently under construction in Dublin.
Sheila and John will visit the Yale studios across the semester, mostly on a fortnightly basis, mostly on Thursdays’ and Fridays. Martin Cox will be available on a weekly basis across the semester.
The Study trip will be to Dublin from 9-13 February, site visits and seminars, further details to follow.
The Project Brief is to design a building on the study site approx. 6,000 sqm, further details to follow.
Some thoughts on the social purpose of the Public Library
A library is a public gathering place, a welcoming space of learning and exchange.
Andrew Carnegie, philanthropic sponsor of thousands of libraries across the USA and abroad, envisaged his public libraries as “palaces for the people.” Eric Klinenberg, sociologist, writing in the New York Times, about libraries as social infrastructure, extended Carnegie’s definition.
“Libraries don’t just provide free access to books and other cultural materials, they also ofer companionship for older adults, de facto childcare for busy parents, language instruction for immigrants and welcoming public spaces for the poor, the homeless and young people.”
Eric Klinenberg, NYT (2018)
“Most of our shared spaces require money or a certain social status to access. Malls exist to sell people things. Museums discourage loiterers. Cofee shops expect patrons to purchase a drink or snack if they want to enjoy the premises.”
Jennifer Howard, The Complicated Role of the Modern Public Library, National Endowment for the Humanities.
“The most important fact about the public realm is what happens in it. Gathering together strangers enables certain kinds of activities which cannot happen, or do not happen as well, in the intimate private realm. In public, people can access unfamiliar knowledge, expanding the horizons of their information.”
Richard Sennett, The Public Realm (2008)