More than a library, by design

In a rapidly changing world that is redefining notions of the public and the private, the virtual and the real, information is now a technology that manifests right on one’s personal laptop! In such a scenario, do libraries as physical spaces still have a role to play as important public commons?

We posed this question to ourselves when asked to design ‘Sundarayya Vignana Kendra’ an institutional-scaled library complex in Hyderabad’s Gachi Bowli area.

While outlining the design programme for SVK, we looked at a library not just as a repository of information but also as the only public space that allows for quiet contemplation. In the physical access to knowledge that it provides, by contrast with the hidden retrieval structures of digital information, a library symbolically embodies another core value to us – of knowledge as a public good, something to be shared and exchanged. For us, this is what makes the library as an institution even more relevant today.

• So we asked ourselves a few questions
• Can a library be more than spaces to read?
• Can it act as an anchor for multiple programs of use?
• Can it be a ‘place’ along a heavily trafficked, placeless, highway?

In terms of the broad approach, given the location of the site in an area with large institutional buildings, it was clear that the library complex would not be something you encountered casually, but a place you planned to visit.  The geography of the site was the next starting point. We took the challenging undulating rocky terrain and carved into it the seemingly disparate functions of the quiet and contemplative knowledge repository and research alcoves, juxtaposed with spaces that allowed for animated discourse, exchange and leisure.

It is best to describe the design in terms of the movement of visitor as well as the building up the slope of the site from the gate. This, and the logic of the interface with the city out there, organizes the design. Given that the library stands away from the rush of the city on a quiet of the hillock, making people aware of its presence was a challenge. In response we created a public front in the form of a cafe and a bookshop which opened onto a plinth adjacent to the road, welcoming outsiders to the activities upon the hillock. The hope was that people working in the institutions around would slowly populate them informally and create an active place in what is otherwise a neighbourhood of boundary walls. It is another story that the café and bookshop have not yet materialized.

Today, the hubbub of the city life recedes as one moves from the gate, up the hillock onto a large plaza. Ascending the plaza you are greeted by a promenade of a colonnade that seemingly provides the first intimation of an institutional presence though it is actually only a screen between the very public plaza and the quiet library court beyond.

The stark colonnade, approached tangentially via the access steps, acts as a backdrop to the activities on the plaza while simultaneously screening and filtering the quieter movements to the upper levels leading to the library court and the art gallery spaces.

The library space which is set against the backdrop of these highly activated edges, sits around the hillock forming a court of the rocky outcrops on the upper ground with views of the city in the horizon framed through the colonnade.

The plaza thus becomes the anchor as the library building spills onto it through the colonnade, with an amphitheatre using the natural contours of the site on the south side and a future auditorium towards the north. A space is thereby created that is a hub for myriad activities that is visible from every part of the building and faces the far bustle of the city. The singularity of the colonnade confronts the changeful levels and activities on the site to yield a multitude of rich experiences.

The building, as it moves upwards, accommodates the library stacks, an exhibition gallery, and a book processing / microfilming / documentation unit, along with spaces for conferences and seminars. The library is organized such that the reading areas have spatial experiences of either the quiet court framing the rocky outcrops, or views of the city on the horizon. The reading areas also ‘open up’ to the less harsh sunlight from north and the east. This allows for the reading space to become more than just a room, expanding on all sides while trying to retaining its intimacy.

The library shelves are placed such that the light from the window illuminates the aisle between the stacks of books. The shape of the narrow tall windows in the southern wall of the library has been optimized to allow just enough light into the stack spaces, while cutting down on heat entry. Hopefully, the sudden wash of natural light reaching deep into the interior spaces of the library will subtly raise the interest of the reader.

The covered space beyond the plaza, which is accessed from the library, helps take the reading experience beyond the space of the library, out into a plinth that, merges with the hillock further beyond.

As the readers would mostly be college students and researchers, the aim was to provide other spaces (a plaza, an indoor seminar hall, and amphitheatre for instance) that could encourage debate, fairs, theatre performances and help foster a vibrant public sphere.

The early years of design and execution drew spirited enthusiasm from the clients, and the project, though delayed, did finally see light of day about a decade ago. Soon after the institution started functioning, the governing trust underwent major changes. The new dispensation was not aligned as firmly as before with the original vision of the project. Unfortunately, thus, new facilities have been built around the building without much care for the founding vision or master plan. So, perhaps, we must recognize that without a strong programmatic anchor a building or design can only do so much.

The next library I get to design will certainly have its own criteria in terms of its site, location, audience, program, and budget, but if I were to think of what the thread connecting it with this project, I think it would be the primacy of its underlying ideas about discovery and connection.

The spatial order responded to the nature of existing terrain and the city on the horizon. Its features are:

• siting the main building to preserve the top of the hillock and its connections to the landscape around
• moving diagonally up a path up the hillock to the library
• simultaneity of experience, as you move sideways and up, connecting visually up and down all the way from site into the building
• an overall scale befitting its location and program but bereft of anything but a structural expression
• for the library and other activities, facing the city on the horizon
• reducing the palette of material and color to allow landscape and activities to foreground the spaces
• maximizing the area for stacks and their continuous visibility from reading spaces and copious natural light

Site area –  4 acres

Built up area – 50,000 square feet

Year of Completion – 2010

Cost of the project – Rs. 10 crore

Strategically situated out of the main building complex, the amphitheater becomes available for other public activities towards the public edge of the property, without causing disturbance to the functioning of the library.  The amphitheater is sited along the natural slope of the site.