an architecture of books robert g hill
curation collection coherence containment concentration
David Duncan Livingston
In the architectural profession, there is an old adage that one good book is worth two good buildings. This credo serves me well as I patiently build my own architectural library over a period of fifty years. The library collection began in 1970 when I was a student at the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto and living at home in Don Mills with my parents, and then, from 1979 to 1993 in my one bedroom apartment where I finally ran out of space, and commissioned a new custom-made house on a vacant lot to accommodate the library in a purpose-made room specifically tailored to form the nucleus of the residence. I slowly and methodically assembled, book by book, an outstanding working library of distinctive and memorable publications related to architecture in Europe and the Western world. At the outset, it should be emphasized that this was created, not as a collector’s library, but rather as a working library of valuable books and monographs on architects and architecture covering the period of the late nineteenth century up to the present time.
The library was to be the centre of my new residence. I directed Shim/Sutcliffe Architects to locate my library room up on the second floor, with high ceilings, generous natural light and views of the sky, clouds, and the surrounding landscape. The design of the house is a grafting of two Toronto architectural precedents; the lower floor is a nod to the classic Victorian one-storey cottage from Cabbagetown, with low ceilings and clad in horizontal lap siding. Above, and grafted to this, is a high loft space, inspired by Toronto’s industrial lofts built from 1900 to about 1930.
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