The typology of libraries has transformed substantially over centuries. A range of spatial configurations was developed with numerous instances and adaptations; many have occurred in our own century as the information needs of the modern society evolved.

Today, the library is more than a hushed place of learning. It has become a social place accommodating public activities. New technologies, particularly electronic media, have radically influenced the program and typology of the library. Yet, in spite of social, technological, and material changes, the essence of the library has not changed-it remains a place of learning. Indeed, a review of its typological development reveals consistencies and a diversity that are instructive in projecting the future of the library.

The "Cybrid" Condition

The increasing spatialization of the Internet offers new opportunities to architects. The computer is more than a drafting instrument; it is a device for generating a new symbolic, social environment-cyberspace. Cyberspace can represent information as text, graphics, or objects and environments. It can orient viewers within the information spaces of work and play. They compare-and possibly compete-with the architecture of the physical world.

Libraries, through their expanding use of computers and the Internet, now hover between physical and cyberspaces. As access to cyberspace will increasingly rely on our intuitive understanding of space, our libraries will become spatial hybrids or "cybrids" (Anders) taking full advantage of these modes of existence, capitalizing on their relationship.

The Program

This competition calls for design of a library existing in physical or electronic environments, or in both, as a "cybrid" building. This library will offer many of the experiences and spaces of conventional libraries. Yet designs incorporating cyberspaces will have unique characteristics. As renditions of data, these spaces may not resemble conventional rooms at all. They may offer experiences simply unavailable by any other means.

While the site, physical size and details of the library program are at the discretion of the designer, the minimum programmatic requirements are set. They are based on a conventional library program and may be used to design a physical solution for this competition. Library proposals, intended to be spatial simulations, must justify ways in which their cyberspaces satisfy the program. Similarly, designers submitting "cybrid" libraries must decide which program elements should be physical and which virtual or cybereal. The degree to which the "cybrid" solution is physical is up to the designer.

Submitted proposals must present ways in which users are aware of each other and the spaces they occupy, whether these spaces are physical or electronic. Submissions may reflect aspects of libraries that transcend functional reduction: ritual, presence and community. Each aspect will have its own manifestation in physical and cyberspaces.

Finally, despite appearances, these two modes of space are distinct. Identities, while comparatively stable in reality, can multiply or divide in cyberspace. Space is also experienced differently in each mode. Cyberspace is far more ambiguous and subjective than conventional reality. Physical space is populated by objects, while cyberspace is inhabited with artifacts of media and communication. Designers should acknowledge the differences as well as the similarities of these spaces in their proposals.

The following list of programmatic components is based on a conventional, physical library, and is provided for reference only. Since the size and use of the library is left to the designers, the program is free to interpretation.

• Lobby Area (1,200 sf)
• Circulation Counter (600 sf)
• Information Area (400 sf)
• Reference Area (400 sf)
• Reading Area (2000 sf)
• General Collection (10,000 sf)
• Periodicals (1000 sf)
• Audio and Video (AV) Collection (1,000 sf)
• Childrenps Library (3,000 sf)
• Lecture Auditorium (4,000 sf)
• Café (1,200 sf)
• 3 Meeting Rooms (150 sf each)
• Administration Offices and Work Area (1,500 sf)
• Rest Rooms (1,200 sf)
• Services (1,200 sf)

Many of the activities that normally take place in a library are not intrinsically physical and may be accomplished by electronic simulation or other means. Each designer will determine to what degree the proposed library will require a physical or on-line presence. (Note that information organization is a primary role of libraries. Therefore, designers must establish clear relationships between the physical and cybereal components of their projects.)