Athenaeum+ : Progammatic Axonometric

Athenaeum+ : Progammatic Axonometric

Alsins, Harijs

Barcelona, Spain

2014

005-LF-P037

Professional

Library as a typology hasn’t changed since the invention of writing, and the advent of digital information (just like invention of typography centuries before it) won’t change what a library inherently is – a spiritual place for reading, learning and working. Whether the information consumed is written, printed, audio-visual or otherwise virtual is merely a side aspect.

It is also a place that cannot sustain itself economically through its primary function, thus depending on donations or shifting into paid services – digital databases, advertising, public events; this will only become more pronounced as our global civilization descends deeper into unconstrained economical neo-liberalism.

Athenaeum+ is a self-sustaining multifunctional organism. Public library and reading rooms on the lower levels are economically supported by a mass of rented office space above it in the form of a tower and by floors of servers below it providing paid online services. The library itself is not different in 2050; what is different is the means that allow it to persist.

The focal point of the library is a grand staircase serving as an entrance portal, a backdrop for public events and press conferences; through it, one enters this temple of knowledge, the grand library and reading rooms.

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