Commons knowledge: A library for rare books yet to be written

摘要

This thesis is a typological investigation of the library, specifically examining how the digitization of information informs design. The agency of the book, which has historically been the protagonist of library design, has been radically transformed by the migration to the electronic, which cause specific spatial ramifications. This library is imagined as a place that enhances access to materials available online, while also providing opportunities for access to materials that cannot be digitized. It acknowledges that current patrons are using libraries to rapidly reconstitute information and, although the majority of the materials they produce will ultimately exist in the realm of the electronic, the building itself celebrates in its own physicality those rare objects, whether existing or yet to be created, that stand against the tide of the virtual.