From the famed library at Alexandria to the Sendai Mediateque, recently designed by Toyo Ito, the evolution of library buildings continues to progress. Today’s libraries require infiltration of natural lighting, widespread access to technology, and often rely on the use of the building to market the services on offer. With the progression of library technology, and the expanding range of high-tech/high-status library buildings designed to incorporate all a modern librarian’s needs, many ask is there benefit in the conservation and/or adaptive reuse of existing buildings. The myriad OHS requirements associated with libraries generally conflicts with the design of older buildings, space is often at a premium and you can be sure that there will be a flight of stairs at each entry point for the disabled to surmount. Today I aim to illustrate how through considered design, contemporary library needs can be accommodated within existing buildings
In order to illustrate these points I will be referring to three projects Allom Lovell and Associates has recently been involved with;
a)Fitzroy Library located at Fitzroy Town Hall where Allom Lovell & Associates was responsible for heritage advice on integration with existing significant fabric with the library fitout undertaken by Sinclair Knight Mertz
b)Port Melbourne Library where as design architects we are relocating the library to Port Melbourne Town Hall.
c)And alteration works undertaken at the Supreme Court Library to enable this historically significant library to continue to operate without needing to be relocated.
The conservation of buildings and the urban area is not a recent whim, it stems back well beyond the 1980’s heritageous period. As early as the medieval period, there was a desire and understanding of the need to sympathetically protect the built past. In many instances continuation of a library’s function and or the reinstatement of a library is an important factor in creating a community’s sense of history and progress.
Broadly speaking library building typologies in Victoria can be categorised as follows:
InstitutionalLibraries that form part of an institution whether public or private. These are often associated with universities, educational bodies, churches, government departments and or other private interest groups. (i.e. Supreme Court Library)
Local educationalLibraries set up by the Mechanics Institutes with the aim of educating and illuminating the working class. These are often associated with the provision of public lecture halls. Examples include the Melbourne and Ballarat Athenaeums, and the Prahran Mechanics Institute.
Integrated CivicLibraries incorporated into civic complexes and generally a smaller component of a large civic edifice such as Fitzroy Library
Freestanding CivicFreestanding library buildings such as St Kilda, South Yarra, and Eltham Library. Many of this type date from a later period but are now beginning to be recognised as architecturally significant.
Early libraries were generally based on royal and church collections. In Victoria most were associated with universities, churches or were set up by private societies. These libraries often began as rooms within larger accommodation for the controlling body. As the collection grew these libraries sometimes evolved to consist of whole buildings within a complex of buildings. Generally speaking the use of these libraries was restricted to members of the organisation and book stock would often have been accumulated over a long period of time and often be a rare and valued resource. Book stacks may have been controlled by a librarian retrieving required items from closed stacks and with limited reading room accommodation.
The majority of the early libraries accessible to the general public in Victoria were associated with Mechanics’ Institutes. Before the construction of the State Library of Victoria in the 1850’s, the largest library in the city was that maintained by the Melbourne Mechanics’ Institute. In 1856 this institution had a library containing some 6,300 volumes[1]. Founded in 1839 the Melbourne Mechanic Institutes facilities were only available to members who paid an entrance fee of ten pounds and an annual subscription of one pound. The Mechanics’ Institute movement flourished in Victoria from 1839 to 1950. In keeping with the movement’s aim was to educate and illuminate the working classes the Mechanics’ Institutes would sometimes incorporate a public museum as well as library and hall for lectures. In 1867 the government made available grants for purchasing books and for contribution towards the building of “free libraries”. This meant that Institutes accepting the grant were required to make available books and other reading material at no cost to the public so becoming in many cases the first public libraries in a community. These Institutes played an important role in early communities, providing self-education resources in the form of lectures, books, newspapers and journals as well as resources for recreation end entertainment. By 1900, there were over four hundred Mechanics’ Institutes in Victoria.[2] However in the 1890’s depression led to the ceasing of government grants and with the impact of the First World War and The Great Depression the growth of libraries stalled. Many Mechanics’ Institutes were renamed as memorial halls and altered to provide larger halls or provide supper rooms and cloak rooms. With the demise of the Institutes, local municipalities took on a greater role in providing library services with some building ownership passing over to local councils. Today less than 30 of these former Institutes are still functioning as libraries[3].
The other common form of early library was the library incorporated within Town Hall complexes. Competition between councils was keen in the late 19th century and from the early 1870’s through to the end of the 1880’s this spirit of competition became embodied in the communities efforts to erect substantial town halls and municipal offices. These buildings would often comprise of town hall and mayoral chambers as well as reading room, clerks offices and sometimes courthouses and post offices. The benefit of including all functions in one building meant the construction of larger buildings, edifices of civic pride often based on British prototypes. As with the Mechanics’ Institutes the inclusion of a library also resulted in a direct financial contribution from the colonial government. These financial deals had the benefit of allowing councils to build grander town halls than their own functional requirements would warrant. Libraries within town halls would generally consist of a main reading room and often a separate room for the librarian. As staff levels and library space requirements grew library functions were often relocated to new buildings.
There are however a number of libraries, such as Dandenong Town Hall where the mechanics institution was located within the Town Hall complext.
In 1944 The Library Service Board of Inquiry reported that the government and local authorities should jointly finance the establishment and maintenance of public library services. Combined with the demise of many of the earlier Mechanics’ Institutes, and increased staffing levels at town halls this led to the construction of purpose-built library buildings.[4] These buildings placed a higher emphasis on both staff facilities and visual access for staff which is reflected in the larger single space library areas constructed.
Another increasingly common form of library, particularly in rural areas, is the mobile library. The modern form is typically located in a trailer, which multi skilled librarians can drive from town to town. The interiors consist of a constantly reconstituted selection of book stock with a limited requirement for reading space or staff facilities. Although I do not know of any of these examples deemed to be significant, the influx of this form of library has impacted on many older country libraries, making those libraries of historic interest that do remain even more important to conserve and/or reuse.
So the question now is, is our library of heritage significance?
Just because a building is old it doesn’t necessarily mean it is significant, conversely, just because the building was built in the 1970’s does not mean it isn’t significant. The original section of St Kilda Library for example would be considered to be important to retain and conserve due to its architectural significance. One of the most important steps in assessing an existing building is to establish what is (and what isn’t) important in the existing building. Important aspects might be just a façade, or a room, it might be the detailed plasterwork, the shelving or even the space allocation. Items may be considered to be significant based on aesthetic significance, social and historical significance, technological value and / or spiritual value. A Conservation Management Plan should be produced to provide a conservation analysis and assessment of the significance of the building and policies that should direct the further management of the building in order to maintain any heritage significance. The outcomes of the management plan may have crucial effect on future decisions to expand, relocate or conserve.
At Fitzroy the library had been housed within the Town Hall complex since its construction. The town hall building was of high level of intactness with many of its original features and had a high level of significance both in terms of aesthetic significance and historical and social significance. The library function however had been relocated within the building previously, and had been split into a separate reading library and children’s library. By relocating the main library to Moor Street area where the children’s library sidestepped many issues that would have been raised in refurbishing original library.
At Port Melbourne Town Hall, the buildings had been significantly altered over time and few original features were retained and or considered of major significance. Like many town halls of the period Port Melbourne town hall had initially been designed with library facilities consisting of a long reading room at first floor level and librarians office on the ground floor level. However, these spaces were now used as council chambers and not adequate for library needs. As there was no longer any historical fabric linking these spaces to their previous library function there was no surviving linkage to this location. In this case it was of more significance that the unused spaces within the town hall building be given a civic function that would allow the people of Port Melbourne to continue to use the building.
The Supreme Court Library was not only of aestheticl significance but also considerable historical significance. It has been the principal legal library in Victoria for over a century and its location within the Supreme Court complex is integral to its significance. In this application although relocation of the library would have answered many issues it would have destroyed the historical continuity and the symbolic link with the apex of the Victorian Legal system, resulting in a substantial lessening of the historical significance of the Supreme Court as a whole. Any alternative uses for the library building if the library were to be relocated would be difficult to find. A reduced level of services as a branch library was not viable as the Supreme Court judges required full access to the full range of material, and setting up two main libraries would have represented a considerable duplication of resources, the nature of the building and its major heritage significance would make adaptation for office or other uses virtually impossible, and retention of the building simply as a ceremonial space or museum piece would have been a serious under-utilisation of the building.
The most important aspect of working with existing buildings is to recognise the inherent qualities of the building you are working with, and design any new works to emphasise these strengths. At the Supreme Court the library building was designed as a tempietto within the quadrangle formed by the remainder of the court buildings. The building is then based on a series of connecting alcoves configured around the main dome. The new rooms created by the infilling of mezzanine spaces continue this pattern.
At Port Melbourne Town Hall the existing section of the building had been originally used as the hall space, alterations in the 1980’s to build a first floor slab and series of offices at the lower level had terminated the main axis. As part of our proposed design the intention is to reintroduce the main axis of the building, by opening up the wall, along the town hall. We also intend to reinstate the axis through the main entry to the municipal offices, and along the laneway that once separated the two buildings. The creation of new series of openings within the brick wall emphasises the rhythm of the 1915 brick structure and this is also reflected in the placement of shelving.
With detailing of new works within existing buildings it is important to maintain a balance between new insertions and the existing fabric. The Burra Charter, recommends that there is an identifiable differentiation between original fabric and new work. This may be explicit or it may be discrete dependent upon the valuation of importance of the fabric and its architectural reading. Generally where original fabric exists this should be conserved, where there is conclusive evidence of original fabric and or intention either through drawings, photographs or evidence of the building fabric this should be reconstructed, and all new construction would be designed so that it does no obscure or reduce the significance of the original. With detailing at Supreme Court where the new rooms created cornices were left square set rather than installation of reproduction items. At Fitzroy library important elements of original fabric such as the cast iron column were conserved, all be it on the point of collapse and in need of additional support.
Within existing buildings space often appears to be of a finite nature. A major concern in all projects was how to generate sufficient space to enable the meet current and projected needs. In order to overcome the spatial problems associated with existing libraries a variety of options can be investigated including;
a)The option of housing some of the collection in an off site repository
b)Reduction of the physical volume of the collection either by culling unused or obsolete material or by the increased use of electronic media as a substitute for traditional hard copy volumes,
c)More efficient forms of shelving
d)Expansion of the library into other parts of the building that are currently under utilised and / or additions where not constrained by building fabric.
At Port Melbourne Town hall advantage was taken of the current car parking space to the rear of the property and through demolition of redundant toilet facilities to allow the creation of a new reading annexe that wrapped around the existing town hall structure creating an additional 200 sqm of space. At the Supreme Court Library, where the building fabric was of historic significance, installation of a new lift and stair at the north east corner of the buildings enabled the more efficient use of second floor spaces, and construction of additional mezzanine levels. This expansion overcame the existing backlog of shelf space in the library and almost doubled the existing capacity allowing sufficient capacity to meet future needs for a period of up to fourteen years. By this time it is anticipated that the use of electronic formula for most court reporting will have superseded paper copies.
In many libraries today the incorporation of natural lighting for reading is taking on major importance. The introduction of throwaway book stock especially in public branch libraries means that the shelter required from light damage to books is often no longer a major concern. At Fitzroy Library the space was serviced by north facing windows allowing positive light and solar penetration. Maintenance of as high as possible a ceiling level in light colours meant that additional natural lighting was not required (a feat that would have been difficult to achieve given the location of the town hall space above). At Port Melbourne the town hall auditorium was also located above eliminating the ability to incorporate skylights into the existing building. The orientation of the site also meant that the majority of windows would face in a northwest direction, which would increase glare and heat load due to afternoon sun. To manage this situation and maximum natural lighting a series of lanterns has been designed along the new extension allowing controlled refracted light to enter from above. All the new wall mounted windows are for visual access rather than light and will be double-glazed with glare reductive surfaces. The main reading and lounge activities have been organised to fall within the reading annexe with the shell of the existing building used for book stacks and storage. To enable light penetration into the main core of the building large openings responding to the existing patterning of the building have been created along both sides and a floor ducted air conditioning system used to enable the height of the ceiling to be maximised. At the Supreme Court on the other hand there are a number of older books where excessive light levels has the potential to generate conservation concerns. Accordingly, where the new mezzanines were added existing porthole window openings were utilized which allows light to penetrate both levels by way of light wells or shafts. The natural lighting is largely indirect with greatly reduced risk to more fragile books.