I found this series of videos about James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University to be really inspiring. In particular I like the reinforcement about importance of how a space is experienced. I do see some potential challenges in ongoing maintenance over time (e.g. 80 different types of chairs) and I wonder what happens when the BookBot is having a bad day. But overall the planners and designers clearly had savvy, vision and passion and the ability to get past some typical barriers as they took an important leap forward. Good for them!!
Reblogged this on and commented:
REBLOG: The #HuntLibrary Story. An amazing, progressive, and technological-rich structure from a fellow UNC system library!
Love the architectural exterior and interior components of the new Kent Libary with focus on what’s best for students. And am much taken with “Virtual Browse.” If only those of us attending universities earlier had had that advantage!
Thought the Kent’s videos could have been reduced from 28 to 10 or less for effectiveness. Too much repetition.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Reassuring that creativity in managing our historical resources is still going on.
I’m with you on wondering about the bookbot’s longevity- but the over all vision of simplified design means way fewer headaches in the future. Eighty different chair designs is a great idea because it creates environments in a flexible way- some designs will last, others will fail- in itself it is an ongoing experiment. Chairs can be replaced – bookbots? maybe not so easily.