“The Bibliotheca Alexandrina seeks nothing less than to recapture the spirit of the ancient Library of Alexandria, the centre of knowledge and ecumenism in the ancient world, and to do so at the beginning of the third millennium, in the age of internet and instant communication”
Symbolic Design
The significance of the reconstruction of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina is important for the current philosophy of library architecture specifically and, more generally for the evolution of the library as place and space. The library is an ever changing facade to the requirements needed for civil society to flourish.
The city of Alexandria was once a cultural centre of the Western world, a city which Alexander the Great, whom the city bestows its name from, conquered and began the process of collecting knowledge of all kinds and depositing in the Ancient library of Alexandria. This played an instrumental role in developing Alexandria into a cosmopolitan city, one in which the most talented, and celebrated academics of their time came to exchange ideas and to conduct research on an unprecedented scale in the Western world. Alexander the Great, and those who came after him, strove to make the Ancient library at Alexandria a place of world inspired research. As the adage reads, the greatness of a University is found in its library and for this Alexandria was the library to study and research. It is believed that the ancient library at Alexandria held approximately 700 000 volumes of various manuscripts in a plethora of disciplines. These manuscripts, in the form of scrolls were translated from and into various languages to enable research to be conducted on a holistic manner by allowing researchers the ability to read and understand what thinkers all over the Western world and beyond thought. Unfortunately, history was not kind to either the Ancient Library or the city of Alexandria. For this, the architects and planners of the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina wished to inspire and provide an impetus for the revivalism of the city of Alexandria as a place of scholarly inquiry, knowledge attainment and most of all as a window to the world.
Architecturally Alexandria was once a beacon of cosmopolitanism and endowed with travellers and academics from all over the Western world. Its ancient glories can still be found in books and articles describing the city’s beauty . However, this changed with the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 2002. The city began what can conceivably be called an architectural renaissance in hope of inspiring a rebirth of its lost place in history. To this end, as noted by a local Alexandrian “I don’t like the building, I think the money should be spent elsewhere but at least its modern, something Alexandria hasn’t had in the last 50 years, a new building” . The Bibliotheca Alexandrina aspires to a past long forgotten as well as becoming an inspiration for researchers, and the general public alike. In striving for this, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina has endeavoured to create a mouseion (museum) complex, in which the library is the focal edifice amongst buildings of information and research advancement.
The Library as Place
Structurally the library is circular, with an extraordinary roof that inclines toward the Mediterranean Sea, emblematic as a front to the openness of intrigue and curiosity of the library. After the construction of the library, many locals believed it to resemble the ancient Egyptian Sun god, Ra . It also conjured memory of the ancient lighthouse of the Pharaohs, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In fact, the library is situated 40 metres away from the sea. The design, as is the entire library is meant to exude symbolism, according to some it is symbolic of “the sun rising from the sea each day to greet new knowledge” . It is not coincidental that the library has a different meaning to each patron, however that meaning always connects the library with excellence in information. Architecturally, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina had to accommodate these ideas, concepts and aspirations which “the shapes derive from geometric, historic, and functional criteria set out by the nature of the project, the user’s program, the site, and of what is known of the ancient library” .
Architectural Features of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The library building itself is 40 000 m², including 69 000 m² of total floor space which is accommodated by the 160 metres in diameter structure . The library is ten floors, four of which are underground with six working floors ascending to the highest point of the impressive roof . The underground use of space is primarily meant, like the British Library, to help accommodate the precious materials the library holds and plans to collect from the powerful Egyptian sun and heat.
The library maintains approximately 3500 seats, desks and study rooms which are functionally accommodated by the geometric shape of the library structure . This functionality is noted in its basic structural grid of 9.6 x 14.4m which was determined by “standard book storage requirements...generated by the need to a large amount of controlled stack space, as well as reading spaces and open-access shelves” . The library currently has a holding of 200 000 volumes but has space to accommodate up to eight million. Included in the library is a central reading room that accommodates up to 2000 simultaneous readers, it is the largest reading room in the world.
The features leave ample space for library patrons to read and research, as well as for substantial collections development. Space is a vital aspect of library architecture but while there needs to be space in order to accommodate the needs of the community the library serves, the space also needs to be strategically utilised so as not to make the users feel intimidated. In this the architects developed the library design to create an atmosphere conducive to comfort in order to permit the most intimate of library experiences. As noted by Peter Davey when he visited the BA, the library is “gentle, enveloping, generous, welcoming and multivalent.” Characteristics such as these permit a user friendly environment conducive to an intimate and relaxing experience. The library is a monumental building of architectural beauty and ambience.
Library Environment
The BA can be divided into various specialised libraries and institutes. There are six specialised libraries within the Bibliotheca Alexandrina meant to serve the needs of the general public including the Taha Hussein library, named after the revered Egyptian author of the 20th century, for the blind and visually impaired; the Children’s Library for students between the ages of 6-12; and the Arts and Multimedia Library that currently holds 50 000 multimedia items such as cds, dvds and video tapes. These specialised libraries are joined by an Antiquities Museum, a Manuscripts museum, and a Science museum. Lastly, the library contains seven research centres, including the Mediterranean and Alexandrian Research Centre, a Calligraphy Research Centre, a Manuscripts Centre, and an Electronic Resources Centre that focuses on internet resources including metadating web sites dating from 1996 to the present. The diversity of the library itself is emblematic of the mission of the library which is to enable “the world’s window on Egypt; Egypt’s window on the world; a leading institution of the digital age; and, above all, a centre for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding”.
Adjoining the central library making the mouseion complex are a conference centre, which predates the construction of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and a science museum consisting of a Planetarium and Exploratorium. These two facilities contain information on astronomy, space and related scientific fields. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is more of an experience than a traditional visit to a public library. In this regard, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina encompasses the changing breadth and philosophy of a public library, that being a library as a multipurpose, multifaceted interlocutor of information and the attainment of knowledge.
The library is no longer a repository of information in which a person goes for the fulfilment of knowledge from a book, or internet resource but rather a place in which a diffusion of information is spread through different alleys and avenues. In this sense, the modern library embodies the spirit of the mouseion, the “library [needs to] look to the Mouseion as one model for further integrating itself into the community it serves and for providing a unique cultural centre that inspires, supports and contextualizes its users’ engagement with scholarship”. The idea of a museum is invoked for the changes taking and needing to take place in the current renaissance of libraries, as exemplified by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The functions of the museum are akin to a library in that, they serve to inspire the dissemination of knowledge to a wide audience, both scholarly and layman. Museums are repositories of information that sustain adequate space for intrigue and the attainment of knowledge. These factors are the rationale for the changing face of the library. Significance of the BA lies not simply in its look to the past as a source of narrative for the future but also in its positioning within a larger scheme of repositories of information.
The mouseion idea endeavours to create an atmosphere as well as a place of information attainment, unrivalled and unparalleled in meeting a mandate as significant and all encompassing as that of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. To meet these requirements the architects, as mentioned needed to consider how to create a reading room that would include the technological features necessary for current use but also one’s that were easily adaptable for future purposes.
The Reading Room
The reading room of the BA is, as previously noted the largest in the world. Moreover, the reading room’s dimension is 160 metres in one direction and 80 metres and spread out over seven floors flowing effortlessly with the geometry of the roof. It has space to accommodate two-thousand readers, the majority of which are seating study’s that accommodate the modern technological needs and wants of a given user. The reading room mixes a between grey concrete columns and finely built wooden desks and chairs which Peter Davey depicted as “set[ting] a calm tone, relieved by glimpses out over the cornice and sea, by green and blue splashes of light and by the warmth of wood floors and furniture.”
As noted by the anecdotal description of Mr Davey, the reading room looks out onto the landscape of the cornice and the Mediterranean Sea. This permits a calm and tranquil feeling, emotions that allow the user to relax and able to concentrate on fulfilling their curiosity. This is compounded by the play on light within the library, where because of the dramatic roof there is a spectacular mixture of natural light and manmade light.
Public and Research Library
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a public library and a research library. The aforementioned adjoining buildings as well as the multitude of museums and research centres make the BA a multifunctional and multifaceted library. The new library at Alexandria strives to accommodate and to exert a semblance of both an academic institution devoted to research and a public library devoted to fulfilling the curiosities of the community. The collections and acquisitions development are key to fulfilling this. In this, the BA has acquired some 200 000 books and related reading materials but, as noted the BA is striving to attain up to 8 million materials. However without the architectural setting the projects aims would be inconceivable.
Light: Natural and Artificial
Light is a concern of all libraries and in Egypt the issue of light is particularly important due to heat and strength of the sun especially in the summer season. In order to accommodate this, the architects designed the roof top in the form of a microchip meant to best utilise the strength of the sun but in a fashion that permits user friendliness. Natural is enters the BA through fifty-six large skylights that “allow a maximum [amount] of daylight...while avoiding the direct sunlight to enter”. In so doing, the BA uses the natural in a productive manner by combating the intense Egyptian sun through indirect lighting that allows a comfortable amount of light and coincidentally heat. Furthermore, the architects designed the skylights to contiguously work with the changing daylight throughout the day therefore allowing maximum light at all hours of daylight time.
Artificial light is utilised for desks and the building in general during when daylight is not sufficient enough for the users. It was determined that each reading desk needed a minimum of 250-300 lux and for this the manmade light is utilised to reach this minimum but in conjunction with the natural light. The library is further endowed with artificial light that is adjusted to the amount of natural light provided and the temperature in order to provide a carefully acclimatised and maximum amount of comfort for users of all ages.
Acoustics
In creating a large building in which research will be conducted but one which also strives to incorporate children and family settings needs to have acoustics that will accommodate the noise differentiation between researchers who predominantly wish for quiet and children who, no matter the wishes of their parents and library patrons will make considerable noise from time to time. To meet this challenge, the architects using advanced technology determined that the best way to minimise the possible loud noises was to implement sound absorbing material in the ceiling, the platform balustrades and the surrounding perimeter wall.
Technology at Work
Technology at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, as mentioned was a formative concern for the architects and planners alike. Moreover, it was devised that the BA would utilise the latest technologies to the best of its ability. To this end, the BA has accommodated the various users through acquiring and making available computers for all ages. It has been argued that the BA has the best information and communication technology (ICT) in all of Egypt. The BA has also undertaken a large digitisation project in creating a digital library. One of the features of the digital library is a cyber tour of historical and present day Egypt, a dynamic user friendly service that allows all age groups to inquiry about Egypt specifically. Finally, the BA endeavours to develop and put into use one million books online, most of which being transferred from the original print source .
Technological features such as these permits wider use and accessibility for the general public, an instrumental necessity for current libraries and requiring architectural innovation.
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