Sensory Library Design: Responding to a Pandemic's Impact on Built Environments
As libraries turn their thoughts to planning for a reopening of their buildings, the onslaught of information about how to do so safely can be overwhelming. The opportunity lies in supporting health and well-being, while allaying fears associated with returning to buildings used by many. Considered through the lens of our senses and how we interact with one another, this article offers a helpful way to organize the many issues and options.
As libraries turn their thoughts to planning for a reopening of their buildings, the onslaught of information about how to do so safely can be overwhelming. The opportunity lies in supporting health and well-being, while allaying fears associated with returning to buildings used by many. Considered through the lens of our senses and how we interact with one another, this article offers a helpful way to organize the many issues and options.
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Introduction
As the world works toward establishing the new
normal, we must also turn our attention to the
next normal. Interventions in the built environment—where
we spend over 90% of our day
in the best of times—are necessary to ensure
healthy public and staff spaces in both the
short- and long-term. Using a building engages
the five primary senses—touch, sight, smell and
taste (through breathing the air), and hearing.
Each of these engagements with a building is
impacted by COVID-19.
Library buildings are social equalizers and
critical nodes of community connectivity.
Today’s libraries offer a wide range of resources
and services dedicated to fostering learning,
curiosity, and discovery in all the literacies
required to thrive. Open to all community
members (academic or municipal), library
buildings must support users in a full range of
activities, from solitary, focused work to large
meetings and social gatherings—and everything
between. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19,
many discussions about library design centered
around human interaction:
▪ Increasing space for community gathering
and collaboration.
▪ Creating spaces that promote exploration
through hands-on learning.
▪ Supporting learning about health and nutrition
through community kitchens.
▪ Housing tools and physical items as an
extension of the sharing economy.
▪ Bringing staff members together in
collaborative, flexible workrooms.
We still need these things to happen. Humans
are inherently social and need one another to
flourish and thrive. The built environment brings
us together to connect with other community
members. Erik Klinenberg writes in his book
Palaces for the People (Klinenberg 2018), “Social
cohesion develops through repeated human
interaction and joint participation in shared
projects.” The world’s complex problems (e.g.,
pandemics, racism, food insecurity, climate
change, and homelessness) require systems
thinking to solve. Shared spaces such as libraries
provide places where people can practice the
bridging skills needed to work across political
lines, cultures, and countries. Talent is distributed
equally, but access and opportunity are not. The
pandemic has magnified inequality. We need
the built environment and especially spaces
that are open to everyone. Libraries are connective
tissue in fractured communities, offering
places where relationships can develop, and
people learn to deal with difference, density, and
diversity.
Yet the risks associated with gathering in public
places while the pandemic is still ongoing are
real. We have quickly gotten used to meeting
online. In lieu of in-person programming, libraries
have pivoted to online programming and
podcasts. Curbside and remote holds pickup
services have reinstated much-needed access
to resources and entertainment. Even some volunteering
at the library has moved online. These
necessary adaptations and extensions of service
do not, however, replace the real need to be in
proximity to others and feel part of a community,
even if only to be alone together.
As libraries turn their thoughts to planning for
a reopening of their buildings, the onslaught of
information about how to do so safely can be
overwhelming. The opportunity lies in supporting
health and well-being, while allaying fears associated
with returning to buildings used by many.
Considering our senses and how we interact
with one another offers a helpful way to organize
the many issues and options.
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