Abstract

From the late 18th century to 21st century, along with the development of the industrial civilization, libraries have been serving the public, owned and shared by the public, the subject of this paper, “Library Space” is discussing the indoor environment of the libraries of this period, and the “Design Concepts” is the macroscopical and microcosmic design concept of the library buildings. On the basis of collectioning of domestic and international historical materials of library buildings and their space layout, combined with the theories of Library Science, Architecture and Design Science, this study is discussing the space design concepts of library space. Reviewing the main process of development of libraries buildings from the end of 18th century to early 21st century, according to the historical background, characteristics of architectural appearance, space layout and interior decor, this paper have divided the historical stages of the library buildings into different parts, distinguished the influences of different design concepts, and to provid new viewpoint for the development of the library architectural history and library enterprise history, so as to provide new entry point for surveying the development of the modern society and the library culture. This research focuses on four aspects: Firstly, to analyze the development context of the library space design, and to define historical stages of the concepts; Secondly, according to the division of historical periods, to extract essence and manifestations of the library space design concepts in different historical periods, including the style of architecture facade, space layout and decoration detail; Thirdly, according to the modernist design perspective, to observe the organization of library space, and sum up the guide lines of design of space layout; Fourthly, on the base of the modernist and contemporary values, to give some suggestions for the microcosmic designs of the library space. Four conclusions to these fours aspects:First, the design concepts of library space experienced four periods, namely the Aftermath of Revivalism, the Peak of Modernism, the Pinnacle of Mmodernism, and the Inspection of Postmodernism. Each period has its own style characteristics, but all of them also have the genetic heritage. Second, in these four periods, the library buildings have the characteristics of ancient style adapting, function oriented, dynamic space and cultural expression. Classical architecture concept dominated the period form late 18th century to middle 19th century; The ideas of modernism, which refere to the freedom of architectural plane, spacetime continuum and minimalist decoration, was rising from the end of 19th century to the beginning of 20th century, and arrived its peak in the middle 20th century. In the late 20th century, the form of the library building has been further deepened because of the Postmodern was reflecting and rethinking the role of architectural culture. Third, from the view of architectural morphology, the space organizations of libraries are including centralized type, grouped type and grid type. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. But each design patterns are chosen according to the function needs and activity requirements. Fourth, the contemporary space types of library can be summarized as storing-reading space, non-book storing-reading space, the extensive reading space and public space. All these rooms should be designed and decorated on the basis of function, aesthetics and culture needs. According to the survey, it could be believed that library space design concepts can be divided into four stages: Rule-following; Function & Form-concerning; Function-oriented; Culture inheriting. The development of Library space design was accompanied by the interaction of library science and architecture science in the pasted more than two hundred years. The development of library space organization was a period from static state to dynamic state, space definition from clearness to indistinction, space design tendency from artifying to humanizing. Form the history of it, we could know that the future of libraries will be designed to return to purity and unconventional, and to use information seamlessly and displaying the information content.

Keywords: Modern Library; Library Building; Library Space;Space Design; Modernism