Wall of Knowledge

Cool looking: Yes.
10,000 year design: With sunlight falling right on the books?

Just look at that awesome library. Just look at it.

@David Rysdam: Great observation. We still have a LONG way to go in long-term thinking.

Other than looking pretty on a portfolio I don’t know what problem is this supposed to solve. It puts a gulf between books and readers, is a pain to navigate (only one stair in the middle of a long level), and I wonder how are you supposed to reach the higher shelves. I seriously doubt it even saves on lighting -you know, midday doesn’t last forever- and even their own render shows most levels will have poor illumination.

Actually, it’s a pretty good example of short-term thinking -a cool print for an architect’s portfolio. If you want it to last and be useful, bring an engineer.

(And no, I’m not an engineer).

For something to serve in the 21st century, this is a waste of resources. The concept is centuries old and does little to make existing knowledge available to a larger, more diverse population. Impressive, yes. But so are the pyramids.

Wow, absolutely mind-boggling.

I think it would be pretty cool combined with a Google-like scan of all the books. Researchers would work at workstations. Select the group of books you want to work with and robots are dispatched to retrieve them. When done you send them back. Since the locations of all the books would be stored in a database, there’s no need to worry about stacking them in the correct order.

This isn’t your normal lending library, this would be like having all our printed knowledge on one wall for tourists and visitors to marvel at. Researchers would book private rooms for their study.

Reminded me of giant version of Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
http://www.som.com/content.cfm/gordon_bunshaft_interview_on_beinecke_library

a very interesting discussion above with a number of interesting points raised, addressed and counter-raised (longevity, acessibility, resources..)

what it does very well though is attract attention and encourage reflection. perhaps these are its greatest assets and the point of the excersise.

one more thing – since this is intended for stockholm, it will never happen. the status quo is unfortunately all powerful here. at the moment.

I don’t know about all that naked concrete.

Stephan

@Hector Cuevas

I’m an engineer, I think it looks awesome. lol if you want a real opinion on functionality never ask an engineer, all we think about is how to take something and make it even more awesome than it is now

Wow, I just visited Stockholm and if this would have been built already I for sure would have visited it! So cool! It encaptures looking at collective wisdom or something like that…

Oh. My. God. Geekasm. So wait..it's just a design idea? The Wall of Knowledge doesn't exist??

Hello jAzz,

In the digital age I don't know how many people really want the “real” book in their hands (use may wear them down, previous users might have loaded it with germs, others continuously lick every page a.s.o.) I'm not trying to say that I prefer digital versions (on the contrary) but for a library it could be an option.

Besides any reflection on faisability: I wouldn't try to see it as a practicable library. It's just an impressive monument against ignorance – in the way that it shows you just how much we could (but don't) know (scio nihil scire). Agree?