Derry Library, Northern Ireland
Brief was to house a collection of rare books, archival materials and temporary exhibitions related to the Derry Diocesan Collection. Seen as a source of research into local and national history the library provided the opportunity to present the city with a major new cultural facility.
The relationship of the life of the building into the life of the city was a core matter of investigation as part of my project. The concept was to consider the building as a series of public living rooms flowing from outside to inside and further from space to space. Due to the sites location between two streets at split levels, vertical circulation and lack of space was a complication. Internal rooms where therefore kept clean with visual relationship to other spaces to provide a feeling of openness. The city is also allowed to flood into the design as it incorporates and maintains a public route through the site, which then takes advantage of an internal courtyard that opens to the city’s backlands.
The relationship of the life of the building into the life of the city was a core matter of investigation as part of my project. The concept was to consider the building as a series of public living rooms flowing from outside to inside and further from space to space. Due to the sites location between two streets at split levels, vertical circulation and lack of space was a complication. Internal rooms where therefore kept clean with visual relationship to other spaces to provide a feeling of openness. The city is also allowed to flood into the design as it incorporates and maintains a public route through the site, which then takes advantage of an internal courtyard that opens to the city’s backlands.