Turings Library Brief-1

Level 6 2022-23 BA Architecture LJMU
6111ASA Design Project Research | 6123ARC Integrated Design 3
Turing’s Library
Libraries are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a
consumer, but a citizen instead.
Caitlin Moran
Every librarian is, up to a certain point, an architect… He [sic] builds up his

[sic] collection as an ensemble through which the reader must find a path,
discover his [sic] own self, and live.
Michel Melot (director of Centre Pompidou Library)
Background
Libraries have a rich history spanning thousands of years. However, are
they still relevant when a world of knowledge can be held in the palm of
one hand? Yet, as a civic building, libraries form an integral part of the
public realm; they are both cultural landmarks and an internal extension of
the streets, squares, parks and playgrounds that make up public space.
Public libraries are, both in historic and contemporary senses, arks of
wisdom and democracies of knowledge, open to each and every one. A
decade of austerity has, however, wreaked havoc on their existence.
Just as debate over printed versus digital books is not a debate over
content but about the significance of the object itself, arguably debate
over libraries is about their role and significance within our civic fabric,
their value as meeting places and cultural spaces. It has been suggested
that a decline in reading parallels a larger retreat from participation in civic
and cultural life. Furthermore, libraries are much more than places to store
and read books. In one sense they are an in-between space - a third place
outside of the home and the workplace. In addition to reading and
studying, they provide for a diverse collection of activities, such as:
meeting, playing, relaxing, conversing, debating, socialising and sheltering.
In the last two decades the idea of “what libraries are” has changed more
than in the previous two millennia.
The Project
Turing’s Library will explore the concept of the library, question the nature
of this typology, and propose a library for the 21st century.
What will become of the civic spaces and activities currently provided by
libraries? How might library buildings evolve to thrive within an
increasingly digital landscape? Aside from books, what else might a library
be a collection of? Ideas will be formulated that imagine the next paradigm
for a building with many rich and inspiring precedents. In the first instance,
thematic concepts will emerge from individual research into what the idea
of a library is, and then from imagining what it could be.
Themes and Narratives

Coincidentally (or perhaps not), both design project and stories are
underpinned by narratives. Design narratives might emerge from research
about what the idea of a library is, and imagining what it could be.
Themes that might be explored conceptually and architecturally include:

rituals of reading (studying, searching, orating, travelling, day-dreaming);
rituals of writing; reading as a scholarly activity and a recreational pastime;
the library as an extension of the public realm and the civic space of an
urban context; the library as a ‘third place’; the conceptual identity of the
‘library’; the cult of the object / artefact; the power of text; records of
language and memories; permeability versus protection; the nature of a
collection; archiving; etc...
Site
There are two project site options. The first is in Liverpool, and is located
on Slater Street in the Ropewalks. This vacant site is currently used as a car
park; it is bounded by Slater Street, Seel Street, an alleyway, and existing
buildings and sites to the fourth side. The second site option is in
Manchester. Aside from the existing trees, this is also a vacant site that is
currently being used as a car park; it is bounded by Minshull Street, Bloom
Street, Major Street and Aytoun Street.
References
There is extensive research and writing about libraries, their design, their
histories, their stories, and the challenges they face. Some in include:
• Borges, Jorge L. 2000. ‘The Library of Babel’, in Labyrinths. London:
Penguin Books.
• Bradbury, Ray. 1999. Fahrenheit 451. London: Harper.
• Dyson, George. 2012. Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital
Universe. London: Allen Lane.
• Eco, Umberto. 1984. The Name of the Rose. Picador.
• Edwards, Brian. 2002. Libraries and Learning Resource Centres.
Oxford: Architectural Press.
• Kucharek, Jan-Carlos. 2009. ‘The Everyman Library - Profile:
Francine Houben’. The RIBA Journal, July: 32-35.
• Markus, Thomas A. 1993. ‘Visible Knowledge’, in Buildings and
Power: Freedom and Control in the Origin of Modern Building
Types. London: Routledge.
• Prizeman, Oriel. 2011. ‘Typology Quarterly - Libraries’, The
Architectural Review, 1377 November: 83-95.
• Alain Resnais’ film Toute la Memoire du Monde, on the former
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=i0RVSZ_yDjs.
• Watson, Les (ed.). 2013. Better Library and Learning Spaces.
London: Facet Publishing.
Ask your tutor if you can’t locate these any of these titles, as they can be
brought to studio on tutorial days.
Liverpool site option (not to scale)
Manchester site option (not to scale)

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Level 6 2022-23 BA Architecture LJMU

6111ASA Design Project Research | 6123ARC Integrated Design 3

Every librarian is, up to a certain point, an architect… He [sic] builds up his

Themes and Narratives

Themes that might be explored conceptually and architecturally include:

Liverpool site option (not to scale)

Manchester site option (not to scale)

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