Beautiful libraries

They say that when the legendary library of Alexandria burned between the 3^rd and 4^th centuries BC, humanity regressed a thousand years, because 80% of the knowledge accumulated during Antiquity was lost forever in that fire. What would the theatre be like today if, instead of having seven works by Sophocles at their disposal, playwrights had been able to consult all hundred or so of those he actually wrote? What would universal literature be like if the epic poem Margites by Homer had been conserved, which in the words of Aristotle set out a canon in comedy, as The Iliad and The Odyssey did in tragedy?

With reference to science, in the Alexandria library fire a map by Eratosthenes burned in which he explained that the Earth was round, along with a book by Aristarchus that situated the sun at the centre of creation centures before Galileo and Copernicus conceived these ideas. Not to mention the treatises of Hero of Alexandria, with technical specifications for building steam engines, robots and automatons. As well, of course, as all of the books whose existence we are not even aware of.

We cannot know what humanity would look like if all of this knowledge had not been lost. But what we can do is learn our lesson. When a library is lost, not only is part of the history of humanity lost, but at the same time its future is mutilated. “Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future,” sums up the writer Ray Bradbury.

This report includes some of the libraries around the world which, above and beyond their architectural beauty, continue to illuminate humankind. As the comic book author Neil Gaiman said, “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one”.

With a surface area of 33,700 m² the Tianjin Binhai Library (China) can house 1.2 million books. The floor-to-ceiling bookcases cascade in futuristic-looking undulations which create stairs. The open-plan space is broken in the centre by a brilliant spherical auditorium. Inaugurated last year, it is nicknamed the “sea of knowledge” and is considered China’s most beautiful library.

The Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz (Stuttgart, Germany) is a cube-shaped building with a very striking exterior which reminds one of a Rubik’s cube when it is lit up in different colours at night, and a sober white interior with 11 floors that invite to calmness and study. This is Stuttgart’s public library, inaugurated in 2011.

Since 1946, the public library of the city of Malmö (Sweden) has occupied the rooms of “The Castle” – the popular name of this building, inspired by the old Danish and Swedish fortresses and originally designed to house Malmö Museum. It also has two other, more modern buildings: “The Calendar of Light”, with glass walls, inaugurated in 1997, and ‘The Cylinder’, made of stone and cylindrical in shape, which links the two former buildings. The result is a curious ensemble which combines Scandinavian tradition and modernity.

At first, the proposal by architect Toyo Ito for the Tama Art University Library (Tokyo, Japan), consisted of locating the entire volume of the library underground, by way of a cave. Although Ito eventually gave up the idea due to technical difficulties, he did try to construct “a subterranean space above ground”, taking advantage of the sloping land it sits on. He left his mark with the classical-inspired arches. Since it was inaugurated, the influx of visitors to the university library has doubled in size.

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