Krakow will feature a colour coded Dewey Classification system such that the spines of the books aid navigation around the library.

100% WALL OF BOOKS CONFIGURED AGAINST: books vs structure vs horizontal circulation (browsing) vs vertical circulation (access) vs light vs services

A building made from books.

Colour coding the Dewey classification system could provide an interior treatment to the library that differs from the hyper-abstraction of the exterior where the spine / title is not seen, only the alternation of coloured covers sandwiching white pages. A facade barcode made of books? Each time a book is withdrawn the façade is modified…

The history of architecture is peppered with attempts to materialise the library as 100% book. However for various reasons each attempt has faltered: Tres Grande Biblitheque in Paris for example made its ‘book end’ towers both inaccessible to the public and the books invisible due to daylight degradation; without the responsibility of weatherproofing, the forthcoming Book Mountain still treats the book/shelf as interiorised furniture than exteriorised architecture. With the Krakow Library our ambition is set:  how can we further push the expressive boundaries of the library as a manifestation of Borges’ Labyrinth: that is a space containing every letter, every word, every sentence of every language?