Library Buildings around the World

‘Commendation - Public Architecture
The existing Queensland State Library was redeveloped into a facility more than twice its original size through the reconfiguration
of the existing building (10,000sqm) and provision of additional 12,000sqm of new space. In addition to expanding existing facilities
the design contains a broad array of new specialist components including: an Indigenous Knowledge Centre, critically controlled
repositories, auditorium, triple A exhibition gallery, cafés, business/conference centre, informal gallery and expanded car park.
The Site Infrastructure Works for the northern expansion of the QCC includes 20,000 sqm of public open space, a new road system
and underground car parking facilities. The briefing and design process spanned a large and complex client group incorporating
community and indigenous consultation. The Library itself has over 1,000 differing rooms and delivers 50 service programs
simultaneously. Appropriately it is an institution subject to constant change. As the building collects differing staff groups on a single
site for the first time, the Architects have been actively involved with organisational restructuring and change management.
Environmental Initiatives: No rating tool applied at the time however: - passive design principles applied to envelope - providence
of materials and off-gassing were vigorously pursued - carpet supplier offered product stewardship - low energy lighting solutions
utilised throughout - chilled beam and other inovative mechanical solutions utilised. (Donovan)
Dunn & Hillam Architects, Botany, NSW - Australia
Workshop 1 Pty Ltd.
http://www.workshop1.com.au
Libraries:
Junee Library, Junee NSW – Australia 2009
Dunn + Hillam Architects are the recipients of the Premier's Prize for Architecture 2010 for the Junee Library.
Master Builders Association awarded Nash Bros Constructions two Regional Building Awards in 2010 for Junee Library
The Junee Library was part of a long term strategy of town centre renewal and occupies a site previously held by the local cooperative
supermarket. It completes a row of storefronts built in the gold rush era and continues the pattern of the elegant curved
glass entry, deep awning and parapet, much of which had been removed during it's time as a supermarket. Though the long side
walls and the beautiful roof trusses remain from the original building this was in other ways a completely new building
incorporating the leading edge of sustainable technology and library best practice. The Library has been planned to meet the needs
of the rapidly changing and dynamic role of a local library within this rural community, providing space to cater for the breadth of
community needs in age, purpose and interest and to allow after hours access and flexible use. Junee Shire Council is leading the way
with the Junee Library by investing in quality social capital and pushing resource efficiency.
The environmental systems employ radically simple night sky cooling air conditioning, chilled and heated slab, automated stack
ventilation and southern natural lighting. All of this means a huge reduction in energy costs (75% less than a conventional building)
and zero water use from the grid. The capital investment on this system was comparable to a conventional system and was funded in
part by a DECC Climate Change Grant.
The building was opened in August 2009.
(http://www.architecture.com.au/awards_search?options=showaward&entryno=2010022856)
A NEW LIVING ROOM FOR JUNEE – WORKSHOP 1 DUNN + HILLAM ARCHITECTS’ EFFICIENT AND ENGAGING
LIBRARY.
Review Ian Martin
Architects Lee Hillam and Ashley Dunn of Workshop 1 tell a lovely story about the first public viewing of the new library in the
small rural town of Junee in New South Wales. The locals were invited to walk through the building and ask as many questions as
they liked. They were pretty quiet until they came to a shed at the back of the library, a room full tanks, valves, pipes and pumps.
Then they started asking questions, lots of questions: about the contents of the room, their function, relations and size, their precise
details and how they related to the building as a whole. ….
When Dunn and Hillam were invited by Junee Council to turn the dilapidated supermarket in the main street of Junee into a
modern library, they set themselves some clear objectives. They wanted to respond with an energy- and water-efficient building, to
recycle as much of the existing fabric as possible, and to source new materials from sustainably. They also wanted to respond very
particularly to this community, and to this place. Lee was born and raised at Illabo, a few kilometres out of town, and so had a fair
idea of the culture of Junee, and the people who sustain it.
Junee is part rail town, part wheat town. On the rail line halfway between Melbourne and Sydney, the township was built up over
the last century for the servicing and fuelling of steam and diesel trains. When completed, the Junee Railway Roundhouse was the
largest of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, as was the Junee Wheat Silo. They are magnificent industrial structures, the kind
that would have had Le Corbusier reaching for his camera. They tell a lot about the culture of the place and its people – their
pragmatism, directness and, above all, their demand for economy of function. So how do you make a library work in this place –
really work, like a steam train or a wheat silo?
Junee has an extreme climate. In summer, hot, dry days are followed by crisp, cold nights. The architects knew of a natural cooling
system developed in the 1970s in Phoenix, Arizona, which has a similar climate. The system is ingenious. Rainwater is collected from
the roof and stored in an insulated tank. The collected water is sprayed in a fine mist from the ridges of the roof into the cold night
air, where it cools, falls back onto the cold metal roof, and then returns to the tank for pumping through the floor slabs during the
day to cool the interiors. The chilled water is also used for cooling the air in the building, and in winter a heat inverter pumps warm
water through the floor slabs, providing all the necessary heating.
Like a steam train, it works. When I visited the building the temperature outside was 42 degrees. Inside, it was a cool 24. If you want
powerful first impressions, this is it – forget the photos. Not bad for a building using a fraction of the energy of a conventional
airconditioned building. The concrete slab of the library, beautifully polished and inset with local Murrumbidgee river pebbles, is
cool underfoot and, moreover, gives an impression of coolness, like a riverbed – a psychological underscoring that the architects are
keen to stress.
Socially, Dunn and Hillam speak of the library as being a kind of living room for Junee. There are comfortable chairs and a big table
just off the street, so passers-by can see their friends inside and drop in for a chat. People hang around here reading newspapers and
from laptops, and there’s a kitchen at the back where you can make a pot of tea. Some local women have even started to bring in
ingredients to bake cakes to share around. There’s a nice feeling to this room – it really is a place to just hang out.
The library plan has the reading room at the heart with the books at its centre, giving the room a satisfying weight. There is no
attempt to create patronizing “zones” with colour coding, or to create dynamic geometries to give the impression of much activity
where little exists. It is a calm space, a bit like my ultimate Sydney book room, the Reading Room at the Mitchell Library, albeit on a
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