Newcastle City Library, a Building to Delight and Inspire

The new landmark Newcastle Central library is superb. The £40.2m building replaces the rather brutalist 1960’s concrete bunker; demolished in 2006. As I toured the building with the Libraries' Development Manager and the interior designer, each floor revealed extraordinary elements of this confident and striking library. Clearly the long consultation with the public and the strong collaborative process between the library service and Ryder Architecture has been fundamental to the success of the project; and as Ian Kennedy the architect (refreshingly) told me their job was to achieve the client’s overall vision.

I found so much to delight and inspire in the new library that there will be more blog postings to follow. Some key elements that stood out on my initial visit were:

Exciting use of space and sight lines throughout the 6 storeys: with a huge light filled atrium piercing the building and enticing people to explore.

Transparency, the glass façade of the building advertises its function and the many delights it contains to passers by. (I recall the old library looked rather like a multi-storey car park.)

Flexibility of the entire space, with no main issue desk and library staff clearly visible at the many stand-alone enquiry and service points. The bookable meeting rooms have flexibility of use, including a 180 seater performance space.

Easy to orientate and use: a hundred percent self service, with customers able to self-issue all items without staff intervention. Visitors can use entrances from two aspects, and the open floor plate and colour-coded signage enables people to easily orientate themselves.

Extraordinary treasures (many previously unseen) are now imaginatively displayed: including the Newcastle Collection, only part of which comprises of exquisite volumes, watercolours and woodblocks by Thomas Bewick (1753-1828).

Sustainability: including background lighting linked to daylight, solar activated window blinds, solar panels on the roof, and grey water recycled to flush toilets.

Vertical space used to inspire; text and image based art installation Four Questions, printed on the glazing across three storeys, by local artist Kathryn Hodkinson.

Wonderful amount and variety of study spaces, including those for quiet reflection, for groups and individuals. The local studies area (of great importance to this community) covers one entire floor.