The Architecture of Knowledge

> From "one-to-many" to "many-to-many"

14 July 2009 - Julin Ang | Rather than assuming a future of absolute digital domination forcing the extinction of books, we propose ideas for the library as a new kind of shared space that allows co-creation and self-expression. The library will no longer rely simply on books to facilitate a connection with society, but will become a hub of knowledge in all its forms; books, new media and user-created material.

This approach aims to prolong the life of the printed book whilst embracing new technologies, creating a digital and physical symbiosis. Thus the library has a new role; not simply the ‘container’ of books, but the producer of collective knowledge and education. The public is given the tools to become an active producer of content, empowered by a new role – thus the user is not only a ‘consumer’ of knowledge but a ‘prosumer’ (producer+consumer). As such, the future library represents the changing nature of knowledge, from traditional ‘highbrow’ knowledge to pop-knowledge.

We propose a radical change to the traditional system by which books are borrowed and organised, thereby liberating the book from its fixed physical location. The future development of existing technologies, such as RFID tagging, will negate the need for the traditional, static, Dewey decimal system. The book will no longer be confined to a physical location on a shelf, nor lost under a sea of weighty tomes. In our future library, we propose a dynamic, self-organised system that constantly represents the changing needs of society.

Movement from ‘traditional’ to ‘future’

From physical to digital
From static to dynamic
From pre-organized to self-organized
From order to disorder
From fixed to flexible
From controlled to dispersed information
From highbrow knowledge to pop-knowledge
From “one-to-many” to “many-to-many”
From pre-production to self-production
From separated technology to embraced technology
From consumer to prosumer
From standardization to customization

RFID
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a radio wave technology that makes it possible to easily manage physical objects. It is already used in libraries in limited ways – however, we propose that it could be used in a much more dynamic sense. The use of this technology, or something like it, has the potential to radically change the experience of the library.
Books no longer need to be sorted by the Dewey Decimal Classification, but can be self-organised freely by people according to events, programs or trends. The system evokes public interaction; people have the freedom to organise the books as they wish. The technology could also track the frequency of book usage; so that the public section of the library truly reflects the most used books. Unused books are stored below, in the ‘Boring Books Section’ (BBS), and are re-introduced, now and then, back into the main collection. Thus, these books are given the opportunity to become loved once more.

Mentor : Rients Dijkstra(NL / Maxwan architects+urbanists), Jason Hilgefort(USA)
Team members : Emilie Meaud(FR), Geert Folmer(NL), Julin Ang(AU), Nikki Remo van Nuland(NL), Dongwoo Kang(KR), Takaomi Koibuchi(JP)

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