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Doorway types define different types of connection, and variegate passage of light. The largest of these portals separate open collection rooms with the seminar room, turning it into a public auditorium.
The notion is to blur the boundary between public and academic activity, calling for educational activity in public life.
The University of Amsterdam holds a long tradition of public education in the city, including a rare collection of local manuscripts. Through public stacks, auditorium and reading room, the building design brings such facilities back from a physical academy to the public.
Public Academic Library
Graduation Project TU Delft 2013
Amsterdam university library, admin, study center, and public library Program size 7,200 m2
This public building is essentially a series of reading rooms and passages with unique environments. A two-fold program including the forum and study center is part of a larger urban strategy to connect city with university as a public space, presented as a building on the outside, and working as a internal, meditative passage.
The Belgian philosopher Bart van Schaeffel has argued that while we increasingly neglect the importance of the physical environment in digital life, it continues to influence how we absorb knowledge, therefore how we reflect upon it generally.