Explore the architecture of this Grade 1 listed building. Discover how the Reading Rooms were designed to reflect the people who use them. With natural daylight being the main light source in the Entrance Hall, there is a natural transition as you step inside from the Piazza. There have also been many attempts to 'play down' the significance and … As the largest public building constructed in 20th-century Britain, architects Sir Colin St. John Wilson, MJ Long and their teams wanted visitors to feel immediately invited as they walked in, rather than taken aback by its sheer scale.
In the original design, the majority of the building was accessible only to researchers. It is set back in a stately fashion behind the distinctive brick piazza and portico and holds its own amongst a parade of Grade I buildings: St …
Explore the architecture of this Grade 1 listed building. Wilson believed that visitors should be able to navigate their way around the building intuitively, without having to ask anyone for help. The sound clips on this page are extracts of two extensive interviews with Sir Colin St. John Wilson and MJ Long from National Life Stories' Architects' Lives oral history programme. King’s Library architecture … At the same time, Wilson subscribed to the modernist philosophy that the form of a building should reflect its function and the people who use it. Wilson was a British modernist architect, strongly influenced by Scandinavian design.
These twin influences can be seen across the British Library in: Originating in the 20th century and taking influence from Scandinavian architecture, this style responds to the natural world and the surroundings a building is placed in. Two particular architectural styles influenced the design of the Library:
This gallery was the first wing of the new Museum's quadrangular building to be built, with construction beginning in 1823. Find out how the King’s Library presented the ultimate opportunity to architects to show off the treasures of the British Library. Look out for some of the techniques that the architects used in the Entrance Hall to make the building welcoming for visitors.
In Wilson’s words: ‘I think of space as being a sort of pressure. One of the first challenges for the new British Library in 1973 was to find a premises to bring together these disparate collections and institutions. Wilson relied heavily on natural light, which he believed, not only keeps Readers awake but keeps them in touch with nature: the time of the day, the weather, the seasons. To help you stay oriented, portholes throughout the building give you vantage points of your surroundings, allowing you to see where you’ve just come from and where you’re going next.
The British Library is arguably the most significant new public building of the later 20th century in England. With a site near the British Museum first approved in 1964, and the existing St Pancras design given the go-ahead in the mid-70s, architects Wilson and Long had to battle against spiralling costs, government changes and funding cuts for over three decades until the building was complete. Nonetheless the British Library eventually opened in 1998, with Wilson being given a knighthood the same year, and building was awarded its Grade 1 listing in 2015. Where to start with designing a building set to hold an almost unimaginably large number of books? – architect taught architecture in Cambridge, England – very controversial, dragged on for years and over budget – in the middle of the building is a six-storey glass tower containing the King’s Library, with 65,000 printed volumes collected by King George III and given to the nation – looks like a ship sailing into London They building was built using strong aluminium extrusion. Stone, bricks and fossils of the British Library While our building is home to millions of books, in our stonework resides oysters, plants and snails – all millions of years old. While our building is home to millions of books, in our stonework resides oysters, plants and snails – all millions of years old. His heroes were Finnish architect Alvar Aalto and Swedish architect Gunnar Asplund, and if you look at some of their buildings, you may notice similarities with the British Library.
Architects working in this style include Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto and Hans Scharoun. To disguise the building’s true size, the ceiling gradually rises in small increments as you enter in order to ease you inside gently and give you a chance to acclimatise yourself. See for example the use of natural materials in the Entrance Hall, and the building’s red bricks on the inside and out, which blend in seamlessly with the neighbouring St. Pancras Station and the Renaissance Hotel.
The size of the Entrance Hall is also broken down by intermediate points like hanging lights, low balustrades and pillars. Please consider the environment before printing, All text is © British Library and is available under Creative Commons Attribution Licence except where otherwise stated, The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr: sketches and original artwork, Sean's Red Bike by Petronella Breinburg, illustrated by Errol Lloyd, Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights, The fight for women’s rights is unfinished business, Get 3 for 2 on all British Library Fiction, Why you need to protect your intellectual property, Oral histories of architecture and landscape design, Stone, bricks and fossils of the British Library, Galleries, Reading Rooms, Shop and Catering Opening Times Vary, the building’s irregular shape (look at it from the Piazza), which echoes George Gilbert Scott’s St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel next door, the clocktower (paying homage to WM Dudok's town hall in Hilversum, Netherlands), which is not merely decorative but also a ventilation shaft, serving to air the five levels of basement. The Library’s dramatic and carefully considered interiors achieve its ultimate goal: of creating a space to inspire thought and learning. The way it has been listed celebrates its qualities, and points out just what does make it special. On the approach to the escalators, can you spot two empty plinths? With its five public floors sweeping upwards like a wave, the architecture is both immense and extraordinary. Architectural style of the British Library.
Even in today’s digital age, there is a clear future for these buildings. We start with an intense squeeze as you come into the building [with the low ceiling], and then once you're in, you suddenly see that it opens up, not only getting higher and higher, but also widening, so in a sense, the space is continually opening and closing, both vertically and horizontally’.
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