Guide
For those of you who have been to the library, you may wish to recall what its entrance looks like? Why do you seem to have to climb a long staircase before entering the library? Let's find out.
Number of words: 2285 words
Reading time: 7 minutes
From ancient times to the present, the library has been regarded as an important building for the collection and storage of books and other paper documents, and is regarded as a treasure house of knowledge and a temple of civilization. The "staircase of knowledge" that extends from the entrance of the library to the main entrance makes it inevitable that people who come to seek knowledge will have more legs and feet and sigh when they look at the "steps".
In general, the main floor (and main entrance) is generally located on the ground floor of the building, which can facilitate the entry and exit of people to the greatest extent.
However, in practice, many libraries will raise the main floor and set it up on the second floor. Elevating the main level necessitated the addition of steps leading to the entrance.
In fact, the elevated entrance and knee-high steps are not deliberately difficult for architects.
According to the library building design code, the size of the main floor area needs to be designed according to the overall scale of the library. For a comprehensive library of a certain size, it is difficult to fully accommodate all the functions of the library on just one floor.
Recommended minimum area of the main floor / [1]
Taking the Duxia Library on the Xianlin Campus of Nanjing University as an example, the above-ground building has a total of five floors, with a total area of 53,000 square meters, each floor is about 10,000 square meters, and is divided into three service areas. The limited area of the main floor, for a multi-storey library building, means that part of the functional space must be separated from the main floor.
In order to rationally allocate the space in the library and meet the needs of different groups at the same time, some libraries choose to set up the internal business rooms on the ground floor, and use the raised main floor to isolate the internal housekeeping workspace from the space used by general readers, so as to realize the separation of different users and avoid mutual interference [1].
For example, internal library staff, such as editors, need to work in a quiet environment for long periods of time. A busy audience of readers can interfere with their work[1]; The entrance and exit of mobile books are located on the ground floor, which can also facilitate the horizontal storage of books [2].
On the other hand, some large libraries choose to set up the library room below the main floor for the purpose of data protection, because the indoor environment on the ground floor is more stable and controllable [3].
The main library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Minhang Campus, as the largest comprehensive library in the university, covers an area of about 43,000 square meters, and also places some of the old books in the dense stacks located on the ground floor.
As a treasure trove of knowledge, the library should not only create a comfortable space for people, but also a "safe haven" for library materials and various archives. In order to "maintain the quality and freshness of books and archives and prolong their life", the design and construction of libraries should fully consider how to create suitable and stable micro-environmental conditions, and avoid environmental fluctuations in the library as much as possible [4], because the environmental conditions that fluctuate in a short period of time are the most likely to harm the collections [5].
According to the guidelines issued by the International Federation of Library Institutions for the Conservation and Handling of Library Materials, the temperature, humidity and light conditions in the library must also be carefully controlled.
In general, a relative humidity of 55-65% is most appropriate to minimize mechanical damage to the data and help the data remain viable. When it exceeds 65%, it will not only cause the adhesive of the data to become soft and lose its adhesive effect, but also easily induce mold problems and cause deeper damage. In addition, the fluctuations in humidity and temperature can affect the size and mechanical properties of the materials in the collection, causing harm [5].
The stability and comfort of the light conditions should not be overlooked. Not only will the energy of the light itself accelerate the oxidative decomposition of the material, but it will also change the humidity and temperature, bringing about a chain reaction and causing multiple blows to the book materials. In order to achieve ideal lighting conditions, it is generally most convenient to remove natural light sources directly from the inventory location [5].
Therefore, some libraries will choose to place the closed stacks in the lower part of the building, in a semi-closed or fully closed state, which is conducive to the dustproof of the stacks on the one hand, and at the same time has less heat transfer and heat dissipation, and the indoor microenvironment is more stable, cool and dry.
Sometimes, it's not enough to just think about the regulation of the indoor environment. The design of buildings, including libraries, must also be "adapted to local conditions" [4-6-7]. The external conditions may also influence the architect's setting of the height of the main floor.
The humid season in southwest, south China, central China, southeast coast and other regions is relatively long, and the moisture content in the soil and air is large.
The invading water vapor will cause irreversible damage to rare books and valuable paper materials, so the problem of moisture and waterproofing is more prominent in the southern region.
For libraries located in the humid south, the design and construction also required a series of complicated moisture-proof treatments. Libraries in some areas adopt the method of overhead and elevated main floors to avoid complicated moisture-proof treatment [1], and can better resist the impact of urban waterlogging and water accumulation caused by heavy precipitation on the library [5], while taking into account the purpose of decentralized layout of functional areas.
It can be seen that the elevated main layer is sometimes a protective strategy that conforms to the natural geographical conditions.
In addition to fulfilling a specific function, the library itself is an artistic creation, with a symbolic function attached.
As a kind of cultural architecture, library architecture is often a symbol of spiritual civilization and a cultural window of a city, community, and school. As one of the key elements of the building, the design of the staircase with the main building brings a sense of solemnity to the visual senses, which can enhance the sense of landmark and symbolic function of the library [8-9].
Many colleges and universities often place the solemn and majestic library building in a prominent position on the campus, and make it a landmark of the campus through certain architectural forms and design styles [10].
As a famous school with a history of 100 years, the library is one of the landmark buildings of the East Campus of Sun Yat-sen University Guangzhou Campus, with a total construction area of 35,935 square meters. The two sides of the north façade of the library are naturally opened, like an open book, and there are many steps in the middle to form a natural passage, which is magnificent and full of rhythm, and has won the 2006 China Construction Engineering Luban Prize.
"There is a road for the road in the book mountain", all of them are coming, and it is not a big problem to climb a five, six, seven, eight or ninety steps!
References (scroll up to see all)
[1] Lv Yue. (1979). Library Architectural Design (1st ed.). China Architecture & Building Press.
[2] Li Minghua., Shen Jihuang., & Yu Tienan. (1994). On Library Design, National Conditions and Future: Proceedings of the National Symposium on Library Architectural Design.
[3] Liu Rongling, & Li Ran. (2020). Technology, Form, Environment: A Discussion on Design Strategies for Three Community Libraries in Spain. New Construction, 5, 21–26.
[4] Li Xiao. (2023). Protective measures and handling of library materials and paper archives. _Papermaking Information_, (12), 119-120.
[5] Adcock, E. P., Varlamoff, M. T., Kremp, V., & Center, I. P. C. (2006). 图书馆资料保护与处理原则.
[6] Wang Zhao. (2012). Building a Green Library in Accordance with Local Conditions: Analysis and Enlightenment of the Successful Case of Beitou Library, Taiwan, China. Science and Technology Information Development and Economics, 22(4), 107–110.
[7] Chen Guangda, Guan Ruiming. (2015). Regional Expression of Architectural Design for University Libraries. Central China Architecture, 33(12), 75–78.
[8] Dahlkild, N. (2011). The emergence and challenge of the modern library building: Ideal types, model libraries, and guidelines, from the enlightenment to the experience economy. _Library Trends, 60_(1)
[9] Lushington, N., Rudorf, W., Wong, L., & Blake, N. (2018). _Libraries : a design manual_. Birkhäuser.
[10] Lin Li, Song Ying. (2014). A Brief Discussion on the Architectural Design of University Library: A Case Study of Graphic Information Center of Jiangxi University of Science and Technology. Library Research, 44(4), 9–12.
Source of this article: "The answer is as follows" WeChat public account, written by: Yanshu.
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