Download - MSc Essay - Ways to Study - Arets vs Kahn

7/27/2019 MSc Essay - Ways to Study - Arets vs Kahn

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BK MSc 1 Interior

AR1Ai031 Architectural Studies

1154672 Robert Wierenga

22 12 06 Julien Merle & Eireen Schreurs


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Ways of study

The individual place of study in the design for the University

Library Utrecht compared to the carrel in Kahns Exeter

Academy Library.


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A library is a very specific sort of building. A building where you

collectively do something individual.

Wiel Arets

A lot of people do not actually go to a library to search for

books. Some sort of digital catalogue on the internet is much

easier; you order the books and if you want, you could eithercollect them from the counter in the library or let them be sent

to you. The contemporary user shifts its focus to other functions

of the (library) building. To study in private remains one of

those functions. But more and more the library tends to be used

as a meeting place, where you casually meet, have a drink in

the bar that comes with the program, and maybe even seek out

a specific significant other. What do these two contrasting

functions mean to places of study?

The earliest separate library buildings still existing today are

that of the medieval monasteries and universities in England

and France. The scriptorium of a monastery is one of the firstplaces where books where kept and studied. 1 The demand for

natural light, to read and write, logically located these places

near the source of (natural) light in a building: a window. This

simple plan was arguably the best option for a long time a

good example is the Sainte-Genevive by Labrouste - and

maybe even holds today. With the invention of electrical light

and even earlier with the invention of printing, this plan had the

opportunity to change.

It is interesting to compare two -contemporary- library

buildings because the collision between individual and collective

is more present in modern society and the question of

publicness should always be answered in a design for a

library.2 I chose Wiel Arets design for the University Library of

Utrecht because in the way it treats the individual and the

collective it could be considered public whereas the Phillips

Exeter Academy Library by Kahn could be considered more

private.

a place of study was always placed near a window

to maximize the amount of time you could study.

1 Earlier libraries (Library of Alexandria, Egypt) are lost and most of them are

not recorded in plan or section. The need for natural light though should demand

a similar placing - adjacent to a window - of places to read.2 Wiel Arets interviews Rem Koolhaas about the Public Library, Seattle, USA

(2005)

WA: What were your aims when you started the design?

RK: We had the ambition to find out what role a 1000-year-old typology could

play in todays world, the ambition to find out what a public building means in

the age of the market economy; - taken from: Beek (2005) p. 192


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from entrance

Both buildings lack an obvious defined (main) entrance whichcould be clearly seen from the outside. The Exeter Library

because of its square plan and similar facades combined with an

arcade, the Utrecht Library because of the size of the entrance

compared to the whole building. LeCuyer says in response:

Kahn might have countered the cri ticism by def ining entrance

not as the location of the front door but rather as a complete

sequence of movement starting on the campus footpaths and ending

in Rockefeller Hall.3

While the above is still doubtful because even halfway the

sequence, when you arrive in the arcade, you could be on one

of three sides which has no entrance; Arets attitude to theentrance is also that of the entrance as a sequence. If you enter

the library building, you do not yet enter the library function,

but in front of you are stairs leading towards the main void in

the building which connects the library activities with each

other.

The sequence of door, stairs and main hall/void is very

consistent with the interpretation of the entrance as Kahn had,

though has a slight shift of its starting point: almost inside the

building instead of outside. Arets counterargument, would be

his answer when asked by Tilman if a building should make

visible whats inside:sequence: door > stairs > hall.

Een gebouw heeft een zekere dikte. Ik maak daarom geen

verschil tussen binnen en buiten. Om klimatologische en andere

redenen is een huid rond een gebouw nodig, maar verder lopen

interieur en exterieur in elkaar over. In de UBU loop bijvoorbeeld

het beton door van binnen naar buiten. Ik zie geen conflicten tussen

binnen en buiten.4

As you enter the building, the experience the two architects

want you to have is different; Kahn describes his aim for the

centre area as being a part of the entrance sequence, where

you should feel the invitation of the books by looking at the

shelves you could see by looking up through the circular

openings of the concrete construction,5 which itself forms an

almost sacred space of six stories high, with light coming from

above and displaying the function of the building as a

storehouse of knowledge.6

After visiting the library in Exeter and the Scharouns National

Library in Berlin with Wiel Arets, Bart Savenije talks with him

about their search for an ideal library environment. The

3 LeCuyer (februari 1985) p. 784 Tilman (november 2004) p. 375

The center area is a result of these contiguous doughnuts; its just theentrance where books are visible all around you through the big circular

openings. So you feel the invitation of the books. Louis I. Kahn in 1965 about

Phillips Exeter Academy Library. - taken from: Beek (2005) p. 1426 Wickersham (1989) p. 142


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difference between Kahns library at Exeter and the library by

Scharoun in Berlin is subject of conversation:

BS: What was important to me about the UBU was that it should

be a building with a collective space, from where you can move to

an individual workplace, almost like a private study, at a window.

That possibility of doing from completely public to completely

private was very special I thought. As far as thats concerned Exeter

is actually the very opposite of Scharouns National Library in

Berlin, which we visited later. [] When I saw that library, I new

that our reading room also needed to be completely open and

accessible. In Berlin visitors can do whatever they want but still

they respect one another. They don't bother each other; in fact they

even seek each other out. 7

The shift of [future] function of the main collective spaceintended for the UBU is interesting. First Kahns concept is seen

as ideal by Savenije and followed; after the visit to Berlin,

(private) studying is seen as being more part of the public

space. It looks as if this is an intentional strategy from Wiel

Arets: I also wanted to show them Scharoun's National Library

in Berlin because the reading room there is the most beautiful

one I had seen. The room resembles a valley in which people

are sitting and reading working and talking.8

Arets intended the UBU to be a meeting place for the whole

university. The staircase in the collective space is designed and

functions like a meeting place. People can see each otherstanding, working, walking and talking, from a lot of different

places in the building.9 The public function gets a big role in

both idea and design. But, as Arets stated himself, What is

different about a library is that it is a very specific sort of public

building. A building where you collectively do something

individual. [] The interesting thing about the phenomenon of a

library is that everyone wants to create a private domain, even

if only for ten minutes.10

Kahn really made the contrast between collective and individual

visible and physical, he even rejects a collective reading space

as being a place of study: Im not sure the large reading room

means very much any more because it is only a place where

boy meets girl and nobody reads. 11 Arets is quite on the

opposite: it is not only a place where they can work in a

concentrated fashion but also one where they can meet other

people without the need for any other stimuli except the

atmosphere that the building radiates.12

What seems interesting now is how both architects dealt with

their opinions on places of (private) study.

the main hall of Exeter Library, where boy meets

girl7 Beek (2005) p. 135-136 A dialogue between Bas Savenije (director of the

library in Utrecht) and Wiel Arets8

Ibid.9 Ibid.10 Beek (2005) p. 13711 Wurman (1986) p. 18012 Beek (2005) p. 194


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to place of study

The place at UtrechtThere are two types of individual space in the Utrecht University

Library. One is a cabin space, with a milk glass door, in it you

can study alone.13 The other, more interesting and more used,

individual space is not really a space on its own, but an

individual place within a collective space. Throughout the whole

building, from the first till the top floor, you can find these

places. The main characteristics: there is always a visual

relation with spaces under or above it, and most of the time it

has a visual connection to the main hall. In order to provide an

individual workplace for everyones way of concentrating, it is

positioned in such a way that the users choice of location also

determines the degree of communication with other users. 14

because of the milk glass doors, you cant see if a

cabin is occupied; notes are put between the door

and its frame to show they are.

appearance of openings towards public and private spaces.

Because of the possibility of communication everywhere, a kind

of intimacy is needed to have a feeling of individual scale. The

solution was to paint all the concrete inside the building black.15

The ambience so created provides no visual distraction and

gives a concluded feeling even in the large hall. 16

The whole building is detailed in the same way, from the

smaller to larger scale spaces like the big hall. Everything is

part of the whole. In Exeter each scale in the building has its

own character: On the interior, the [white] oak provides the

private intimate scale of the wooden shelf, desk, or chair, in

contrast to the room-like scale of the brick arcades and the

monumental scale of the concrete central hall.17

13 Because this cabin spaces are so private, they are sometimes even used for

sexual encounters.14 Beek (2005) p. 19415 If you look at old buildings of this kind which are fitted out with dark wood,

you realize that libraries were always places of contemplation in which there was

very little light. At the beginning of my design, colour and materials were very

important aspects. We soon became aware of a certain conflict, however. In old

libraries, it is easy to concentrate - that has a lot to do with the dark coloration -

but they don't normally have an interesting lighting atmosphere. In the

university library in Utrecht, I tried to combine both qualities: black walls and

ceilings, and a lot of light. There's another colour, though, that I'm never asked

about: white. Bright tables increase concentration when you're looking at the

white pages of a book. A bright-coloured floor senses to reflect light on to the

spines of books on the shelves. If the floor were also black, youd lose yoursense of orientation.Arets interviewed by Frank Kaltenbach on 19 januari 2005

in Munich. taken from: Detail (march 2005)16 Beek (2005) p. 13617 Wickersham (1989) p. 148


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The carrel at Exeter

Exeter began with the periphery, where l ight is. I felt thereading room would be where a person is alone near a window, and

I felt that would be a private carrel, a kind of discovered place in

the folds of the construction.

Louis Kahn in 1965 about Phillips Exeter Academy Library 18

The carrels made from white oak provide a separate world

where students sometimes even live: The study carrels, some

of which are assigned to day students, show clear signs of

homesteading, with ties and jackets neatly draped over

thermostats and favourite posters on the walls. 19 Kahns

decision two make the carrels the way they are is based on two

things. The carrel being part of the in between of theconstruction:

The name carrel20 implies something which is in the construction

itself, which you find as a good place to read. Its a natural outcome

of structure which says, Why dont we set a bench there? Its a

good place to be. Then you give the name, rather than saying, Well

have carrels. If you see in a program a direction to the architect,

We want so many carrels, what is lost is the discovery of the carrel.

You go back to the wonder of having discovered it, and from there

you get the sense that you have no right to have a carrel until, by

your construction, you rediscover the carrel. 21

carrel with a small adjustable sliding window, and a

larger window to lit the hallway.

The second reason has to do with different ways of using the

daylight: Blue light and White light

At Exeter, Kahn dist inguished between the direct white light

which streams in through the windows onto the study carrels and

tables, and the indirect blue light which filters down from the top

of the central hall. [] so in Kahns mind the descent of the blue

light dramatizes the students encounter with knowledge and truth

not in the collective setting of a classroom, but as an individual,

who would set foot in the hall alone. From the hall, as Kan

described it, the student would then go to choose a book from the

stacks, to finally emerge in the more prosaic white light of the study

carrels.22

In section you see how the carrel is shielded by the bookshelves

from the collective space of the concrete Rockefeller hall, and

turned to the faade. If we now compare it to a typical section

of places of study in the Utrecht Library, we see the similarities

and the differences.

18 taken from Living Library, Beek (2005) p. 14219

LeCuyer (1985) p. 76-7720 A partially partitioned nook in or near the stacks in a library, used for private

study. (source: www.thefreedictionary.com)section: placing of the bookshelves between main

hall (collective) and the carrel (individual).21 Wurman (1986 ) p. 17922 Wickersham (1989) p. 142


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In Utrecht most of the study places are located near the main

hall, with their back towards the books, and their view (if you

should choose to look) towards the main hall. In Exeter they

are all located to the faade with the collective places out of

sight. Both architects deploy the quality of double height

spaces, or a connection to a larger volume to enrich the space

of study. The sense of individuality in the carrel becomes even

greater because of that, the opposite happens in the UBU,

Because of that height and the connection it brings you feel

more part of the collective. It is interesting that the same

architectural means can result in different experiences.

main section: where are places to study positioned

in both buildings.

typical section: where are places to study positioned in both buildings.


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the difference between the relation of public and private places.

Wiel Arets: In Kahn's library in Exeter the collective is alsopresent, but less explicitly than in Scharoun's library in Berlin. I

think that we, as client and architect, unconsciously grew into that

idea. And I don't think there are many other libraries besides the

UBU that give so much emphasis to the collective. 23

Despite of the dimensions of the UBU space there is a studious

atmosphere; it has not the sacred qualities of the sculptural

Rockefeller hall, but is more public of character, which building

is ready for the future?

future

A lot of information only displayed in books for a couple ofyears ago is already becoming available digitally, and nowadays

the main source of information is the internet because of its

immediateness

What will be the future role of libraries; will books become

objects of great value and will be exhibited in a museum type of

building? Wiel Arets interviewed a couple of architects about

libraries and asked them similar questions about the time to

come:

Wiel Arets: What do you think about the position of the

traditional book in the near future when we consider new media as

a seemingly dominating source of information?Toyo Ito: The

more the image media advance, the more the meaning of Book as

Material grows. In the same way: the more the human brain

evolves, the more mans body in contrast has meaning. 24

Wiel Arets: What role remains for the book now and in the

near future, given that we are surrounded by new media?Rem

Koolhaas: Over the past 30 years Ive witnessed the inexhaustible

vitality of the book. And I find it fascinating to see how new

technology influences the book. SMLXL is inconceivable without the

whole notion of hypertext, but its still essentially a book. I think

23 Taken from: Beek (2005) p. 13724 Wiel Arets interviews Toyo Ito about the Sendai Mediatheque, Japan (2005)

taken from: Beek (2005) p. 162


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that the relation between man and book has an intimacy unrivalled

by other media. So its unlikely the book will ever disappear. 25

The same question was returned to Arets by Frank

Kaltenbach:26

Wiel Arets: A library is a place where books are stored and

where they can be read; but it is also a place of encounter and quiet

communication. We architects create an atmosphere in which people

can pursue other activities, not just reading books. Where once the

only medium was the book, today there are computers that possess

much greater scope. It would have been better to have called this

institution a media centre and to have offered film documents and

DVDs as well.

The UBU provides each desk with an internet connection andmost of the time with a computer installed. Exeter can do

without that. The opinions are different, the opinions will

change. Whats clear: the book remains. But will the library as a

(public) building survive, and will it as an institution of books?

25 Wiel Arets interviews Rem Koolhaas about the Seattle Public Library, USA

(2005) taken from: Beek (2005) p. 19226 Does it still make sense today to erect buildings for books, in view of the

digital media that are available everywhere? taken from: detail (2005)


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

books

Beek, M., ed (2005) Living Library: Wiel Arets Utrecht University

Library. (Munich) Prestel Verlag

Costa, X., ed. (2002) Wiel Arets. (Barcelona) Ediciones Polgrafa

Faiferri, M., ed. (2004) Wiel Arets. works and projects. (Milan) Electa

Architecture.

Wurman, R., S., ed. (1986) What Will Be Has Always Been: the words

of Louis I. Kahn. (New York) Access Press Ltd. and Rizzoli International

Publication Inc.

pages 178-183

articles

Cauberg, H., Kaltenbach, F., Toonen, S., Uehara, Y. and others (2005,

march) Universittsbibliothek in Utrecht. in: Detail: Vol. 45. No. 3:

pages 206-228

LeCuyer, A., (1985, february) Evaluation: Kahn's Powerful Presence at

Exeter. in: Architecture (AIA): Vol. 74. No. 2: pages 74-79

Tilman, H. (2004, october) Ongenaakbaar en tegelijk open. in: de

Architect: pages 48-57

Tilman, H. (2004, november) Het hele leven moet een feest zijn. Wiel

Arets over architectuur en interieur. in: de Architect Interieur: pages

32-37

Wickersham, J. (1989) The making of Exeter Library. in: The Harvard

Architecture Review: Vol. 7: pages 138-149

Websites

websites

www.library.uu.nl (main page of the Utrecht University Library)

Last viewed: 19/12/06

http://library.exeter.edu/index.html (main page of the Phillips Exeter

Academy Library)

Last viewed: 19/12/06

images

> a monk writing (partial) reproduced from a 15th century miniature,

the image is from "Les arts au moyen age et a l'epoque de la

Renaissance"by Lacroix, P. (1869) Paris

> Exeter main hall Wronsky, C.

> occupied cabin spaces by Krieger, J. de (2006)> carrel in Exeter from www.classicist.org (author: unknown)

> interior perspective Wiel Arets & Associates
http://www.library.uu.nl/http://library.exeter.edu/index.htmlhttp://www.classicist.org/http://www.classicist.org/http://library.exeter.edu/index.htmlhttp://www.library.uu.nl/