Idea Store London
11.02.2011 CASE: Idea Stores are more than just a library or a place of learning. As well as the traditional library service, they offer a wide range of adult education classes, along with career support, training, meeting areas, cafes and arts and leisure pursuits. Located close to shopping streets or even on the top of the supermarked, and with use of significant architecture, the Idea Stores have become great landmarks in the poorest urban areas of London.
In 2004, all public libraries in Tower Hamlets, a disadvantaged inner borough of London's East End, was closed, sold off and are ongoing replaced by seven radically new "Idea Stores."
Tower Hamlets is characterized by high unemployment, low educational levels, poor occupational skills, and a diverse population— speaking more than 50 languages. The boroughs libraries was among the country's least used. Recognizing the need for change, Head of Libraries initiated a extensive public opinion survey. The results were striking. Residents wanted, in rank order, more books; computer technology; more convenient and accessible services; and educational support. Their lowest priority: maintaining the grandeur of historic buildings.
The results of the survey made the starting point for a brainstorm about visionary concepts of information service combining adult and recreational education with traditional library functions. The final concept was named "Idea." The next phase in the process was to brand the new facilities "Idea Stores" rather than libraries. Idea aims to supplant negative stereotypes of libraries and the "institutional feel" that has turned off the public for decades.
A brand consulting firm made the layout and tone of the stores, and local residents was questioned in focus groups. Drawing on the interior design and ambiance of department stores and restaurants, they intended to make the stores comfortable, and user-friendly. Outside, the architecture of the Idea Store, should draw people in and grab their attention in the way that shops do, and they should be placed in shopping areas, so that you can slip into one as easily as you would a supermarket. David Adjaye, the architect of 2 of the stores, describes it like
"This is an environment where opaque buildings are seen as negative, as a sign of poverty. I wanted the Idea Store to be architecture that people drive into town for; or like a mall, clean and glass and glossy."
The Idea Store both sets itself apart from its surroundings and embraces them. It is clearly something special, a world apart and a construction different from any other nearby, but it also aims to draw the life of the street into it, through the escalator that lands straight on to the pavement, and through the use of both glamorous and workaday materials. Thanks to the technology of swipe cards, security no longer demands that a library have one entrance - this has several.
Visit the Idea Store homepage for more information.