Imagination and Participation: Next Steps in Public Library Architecture

A manifesto for the future of the library, featuring conversations with leading architects and designers

In Imagination and Participation, Dutch librarians Rob Bruijnzeels and Joyce Sternheim examine the most important recent changes in public library design through conversations with experts and architects who have designed public libraries in the Netherlands and abroad. These conversations and the authors’ insights and experiences offer a vision for future library buildings that respond to the needs of the communities they serve.
Imagination and Participation lays out a manifesto guided by what the authors believe visitors should experience when they visit a library. Libraries featured include the Birmingham Library in Alabama, Mies van der Rohe’s Martin Luther King Library in Washington, DC, and the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building; architects and designers interviewed include Jo Coenen, Chris van Duijn, Francine Houben, Winy Maas, Vincent Panhuysen, Michael Riedijk and more.