LIBRARY 47
- Year: 2013
- Client: Department of Culture of the city of Moscow
- Location: Moscow
Built in the 1980s in a classical style of the Soviet austere mod- ernism, this children’s’ library is situated in the densely populated area to the North of the city centre where lots of low- and medium income families with kids traditionally choose to live.
Although there is an obvious need for a proper educainment space for children of various age in this rather large and complex neigh- bourhood, the library at the moment does not o er much to the younger citizens and still adheres to the same old routine estab- lished in a di erent political, economic and social realm. The Soviet formula does not seem to work today: the library is not really pop- ular and is used rather by default as there are not so many places to go with the children.
In this project SVESMI proposes a central lobby – spacious and full of light – with an open oor plan and lots of freely distributed play units and places for reading (so called “nests”) surrounded by various smaller rooms to accommodate all sorts of functions: meetings, workshops, rehearsals, reading salons for kids, and etc. With this structure the program of the library can diversify in nitely without compromising the overall unity of the interior space; the lobby will always maintain its colourful identity no matter how the smaller rooms will be used.
Library’s location – close to main roads, public transport and park- ing lots but away from the real buzz of tra c makes it
a perfect place for local community centre where parents can spent their leisure time while kids are playing or reading.
The library is situated not far from the Russian TV-centre; there is an obvious potential in organizing lm workshops for older kids and a cartoon studio for preschoolers in collaboration with the TV-cen- tre experts. The results of the kids’ work as well as other movies and animation could be shown at the new rooftop summer cinema open for the public.
