Event at NAI Rotterdam: 06 july 2009  - 17 july 2009

Information is knowledge. Knowledge is the library’s commodity. As a result it attracts producers and consumers of this knowledge. To survive it should be aware and adaptable to changes and influences in this age of information and communication. What form and position will its physical and conceptual structure need to take in order to endure these changes in the data saturated realm of public and private society? 'The architecture of knowledge.The public library of the future.' is a collaborative project organized by The Netherlands Public Library Association and the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) in 2009, consisting of a lecture series followed by a two week workshop for students.

• Read Huib van der Werf's short introduction into the Architecture of Knowledge
  
• View the full list of participants in the Architecture of Knowledge workshop (pdf)
  

The workshop
The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) and the National Public Libraries Association set up a two week workshop for students from July 6 to July 17 2009. Main aim of the workshop was to establish a set of new possibilities which can be used as a framework and/or starting point for the architects of future libraries. Students from different educational backgrounds were invited to apply to work under tutelage of one of the following mentors: Daniel van der Velden Rients Dijkstra (Maxwan architects + urbanists), Jurgen Bey & Ester van de Wiel and Gabriel Lester. Each mentor guided a specific team: Bey & van de Wiel-

During the two week workshop, the students were divided into four teams (The public library of the future team, The Fantastic library team, the Excellence team and The Netbook and the library team). The mentors provided the students with theoretical and practical lessons in order to guide the research that the participants undertook. Each of the mentors brought with him/her their own background of cultural production – such as contemporary art/film, (social) design, and architecture/ urban design – which in turn challenged the notions and concepts that the participating students had on what a library is, and more importantly, what it could be.

> The outcome of the Architecture of Knowledge workshop can now be viewed online; watch the final presentations of the four partcipating groups and their mentors.

The lecture series
In order to provide a context for what this library of the future could be and what realities it might be exposed to, the workshop was preceded by a lecture series. During these lectures, international experts presented concepts of collective knowledge, thoughts on the notion of public space and the relationship between (new) media and (cultural) society, and insights into product management and reception. The lecturers included Lev Manovich, Bart verschaffel, Markus Miessen Pim van den Berg.

> Each of the Architecture of Knowledge lectures can now be viewed online.

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