ABSTRACT
The architectural development of the public library is most directly associated historically with advances made in the US, although its earliest influences are European. These influences are reciprocal, with the emergence of new projects in Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia that incorporate many of the same design themes. Almelo Public Library is the main city library for a small, outlying municipality in eastern Netherlands. The tightly constrained urban site is strategically located in the historic center of Almelo, at the east end of a city block, facing onto a narrow side street. Peckham Library, in the southeast London borough of Southwark, is an urban neighborhood branch of the Southwark Council library system, collocated with community information services for the Peckham district. The Idea Store Whitechapel is an urban neighborhood branch and flagship facility of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets library system, serving a vibrant community in the city’s East End.
