Saturday, October 29, 2011

Seattle Public Library


We headed downtown to check out the main branch of the Seattle Public Library. We had seen that it was quite an amazing feat in a very cool TED Talk (video below).

The library was built in the manner of form follows function, an apparent oddity in the architectural world (which from an engineering prospective is mind blowing). It was designed through a collaborative effort of architects and engineers with the goal of enduring practicality as the future importance of the book as a form of media is unknown!

Watch the first 9.5 minutes of the video to learn all about it. If your getting bored, skip to the 2.5 minute mark and watch through minute 9.5, where they show you the library. I recommend the whole video though.






(Click the "Full Screen" button in the bottom right corner, so you can actually see the video)


In a unique, but no-brainer fashion, the Dewey Decimal system is arranged linearly, and then coiled into a spiral to fit inside the building! It is really very fascinating when you think of how the simplicity of this idea has eluded us for so long!

The library was beautiful and I am considering going there to do some work sometime.


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