If libraries looked like this when we were forced to go in our childhood to do those science projects and research on conquistadors, MAYBE we might still be lounging around and reading books for free. The University of Amsterdam library has become a ‘home’ in which students can study, with an enormous collection of books kept in closed repositories and book depots. Up to 5000 students visit the library everyday to pick up their digitally ordered books, the University wanted a new design that would comprise study rooms plus 235 extra workspaces, the information center and a automated lending area.

In offering students a second home to study, Roelof Mulder and Bureay Ira Koers had to achieves two important things: a space like the white page of a book where the students themselves would play the main role in determining how its is filled in, and in certain areas a domestic atmosphere where the students could also study informally. In one of the study rooms you will find a number of kitchen tables where you can work in groups under the lamp, a Chesterfield couch for reading a newspaper, various sitting areas for a short break and special telephone areas in the hallways between the quiet study rooms. The columns in the canteen are transformed into illuminated trees with low energy light bulbs.

Until recently, borrowed books could only be picked up at the library desk during office hours. now the students can pick up their ordered books themselves in a newly designed red room that is open until midnight, including weekends. In red cases with 1105 red crates, piles of books lie ready for the borrowers. because these books come from different locations, this is the heart of the university library, with a back office hidden from view in which the books are readied for self-service with the RFID system.