Strange Systems » library http://www.strangesystems.com Architecture. User Experience. Exploring the overlap of physical and virtual. Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:12:35 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 How Buildings Learn: Seattle Public Library http://www.strangesystems.com/blog/how-buildings-learn-seattle-public-library.html http://www.strangesystems.com/blog/how-buildings-learn-seattle-public-library.html#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:40:06 +0000 namho http://www.strangesystems.com/?p=437 DSC00352.JPG

Central Library, Seattle, USA (Rem Koolhaas, OMA)

How does a public library cope in a digital age? How does a physical space handle a virtual classification system such as the Dewey Decimal system, and continuously changing needs?

In the Seattle Public Library’s Central Library, designed by Rem Koolhaas / OMA, books stacks run in a spiral space AKA The Book Spiral (very cool diagram), with removable numbers in the floor so that the library is flexible enough to “learn” and adapt to new needs.

The library embodies many other noteworthy principles that you can find in OMA’s original 1999 concept book for the library.

It’s a space that exemplifies Stewart Brand‘s notion of “How Buildings Learn”.

More photos.

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