symbolic public form and the library vers pluralisme
typologies | the library by neeraj bhatia
centricity democracy collectivity monuments symbolic form
Often referred to as a centric type, early libraries were modelled after the ideal human mind 1 , symbolically ordered by a circular plan and unified by a central dome. Christopher Wren’s alternate plan for Trinity College (1676) was the first documented centric library: the circular form was carved from the centre of a cube. An interior colonnade provided a second structural skin to house the books – synthesising information on the architectural container; a monumental reading room centred this ordered universe, indicating the importance of scholarship. Herman Korb’s Wolfenbuttel Library (1710) was the first realised centric type: an elliptical reading room was set within a golden section 2 ; collections were incorporated into the elliptical walls. The major elements of the library – books, readers and staff, co-existed under a uniting dome, in a single symbolic space of collective scholarship. This fixation on maintaining an unobstructed symbolic space, however, allowed little room for storage, administration or growth of the collection. This was both the beauty and failure of the centric type – it bestowed greater importance to the library’s symbolic role than to its functioning.
Whether individual or communal, an archive exists to protect information and entrust it to our successors. Not only does this make the archive inherently public, it places an unassailable faith in knowledge as a precursor to progress. It is no wonder that the free-standing library – an architectural type that archives knowledge – emerged during the Age of the Enlightenment. Over the past three centuries, two variations of the original typology emerged that offer clues for how to address the contemporary library – an institution that is losing its spatial information while existing as a rare vestige of collective space in the liberal pluralist city. Centric Unity during the Enlightenment The age of the Enlightenment was characterised by countless scientific discoveries inspiring (and inspired by) a belief in fixed, objective patterns that are discoverable through reason. Glorification of reason promoted new forms of equality under the pretence that all humans have an identical capacity for reason. With freedom and democracy emerging as primary values in society, the library was liberated from hegemonic control and became a freestanding symbol for knowledge and reason.
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On Site review 20: archives and museums
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