peckham library case study

Peckham Library, London

William Alsop & Jan Störmer designed the new Peckham Public Library in London, England, winner of the 2008 Stirling Prize. It opened in 2000.

Angled steel columns support the inverted ‘L’ shaped structure, which is clad in pre-patinaed copper panels. The cantilever shelters an exterior plaza which is open to the public air yet removed from the noisy street. A red blobs appears overhead to indicate the blob-like nature of the interior. Wood “pods,” rather than rooms, organize the interior space. In the rear, planes of colored glass leave an unexpected and indelible element to the project.

‘The Elements’ by Duncan Hooson sculpture blobs into the Peckham Square, with the Peckham Pulse is a health and fitness centre facing the library like an architectural brother (shown below). The library has rejuvenated this run-down section of the urban city and will continue to do so by inspiring architecture of that area.

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Peckham Library, London

A welcoming community space in the heart of Peckham…

WF undertook the design consultancy and implementation for the refurbishment of this public library after the upgrading of its heating and ventilation system. The council took the opportunity to reassess their service needs and the needs of their diverse and multi-cultural community.

The building includes interesting architectural features that the project needed to complement and enhance.

The project included the upcycling and replanning of their existing shelving (provided originally by WF/previously Demco Interiors in 2000) in the adult area. This included the addition of engaging end-panel graphics to designate genres. These were designed to complement the muted colour scheme in the adult library.

We upgraded and increased the individual solo study spaces (with integrated power), located in several areas in the library, using accents of grey to tie into the overall aesthetic.

We added additional signage, to improve wayfinding around the space.

Using our Everna™ system we designed an updated modern facility to include shelving to promote browsing and borrowing, study places, reading dens, and cosy nooks.

The New Children's Library

WF created a new fabulous large, dedicated Children’s library. This space, using the Everna™ system has a distinctive look and feel – deliberately different to the main library.

The shelving is a mix of 1500 and 1200 in a vibrant kiwi green to appeal to younger children, with plentiful display shelves and browser boxes. The Everna™ system incorporates a large double-width window den and a smaller cosy single den to encourage reading.

The scheme creates small nooks and zones, without compromising sightlines, to encourage children to explore and browse.

The New Young Adults Area

To encourage more teenagers to visit and make use of the library service, a designated Young Adults area was integrated into a corner of the main library. This was located near the graphic novels section, known to be a popular ‘hook’ to encourage visits, and included a section specifically for revision guides and exam resources.

The Everna™ system incorporated a double-width window seating den and a single den integrated into the shelving. Whilst maintaining sightlines, the large den designates the space and provides a feeling of ownership, separate from the main library.

We worked with the library team regarding the layout, the function, and the aesthetic feel, providing visuals and colour boards to help the customer imagine the finished result.

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Will Alsop's Peckham library revisited

By Martin Spring and Martin Spring Martin Spring 2009-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

It won the Stirling prize, but many doubted whether it would ever win over the locals

Source:  Astrid Kogler

The front elevation, complete with giraffe-leg columns

Students at internet-linked tables below the pods are not disturbed by traditional library users perusing the bookshelves

On the whole, the design has weathered its first nine years pretty well, except for some faint traces of graffiti

The only major attack was with an air rifle, but repairs could cost £48,000

Children are given the best treat of the building – a vast window wall offering a panorama of London

The entrance hall is cramped, municipal and offers no enticement to venture up to the library on the fourth floor

It won the Stirling prize, but many doubted whether it would ever win over the locals. Nine years on, Martin Spring went back to Will Alsop’s Peckham library to find out

Peckham library in south London can be read as a textbook case of signature architecture mobilised in the cause of urban and social regeneration. In the nineties, Southwark was the second most deprived council area in England, and Peckham was one of its worst areas. Housing was poor, unemployment high and the GCSE pass rate was a third of the national average.

So, the £6.75m library was commissioned by the Labour-run council as part of a £265m regeneration package for Peckham. The 2,500m2 building, designed by Will Alsop, was completed in 2000 and was greeted as an architectural wonder – albeit a bizarre one. It went on to win that year’s Stirling prize and a Civic Trust award two years later.

Now, nine years after completion, is the building fulfilling the goal set for it? Does it attract people from deprived backgrounds to the world of books, learning and education? Has it launched a generation of IT-orientated libraries? And has it acted as a catalyst for the regeneration of this rundown borough?

Well, we’ll come back to those questions. The first thing to say about it is that the building’s strangest and most in-your-face feature is also a fundamental handicap. By perching the library hall high up on the fourth floor, Alsop overturned the golden rule of retailing: display your wares as prominently as you can to pull in passers-by. In an area not noted for its love of scholarship, this could be a serious defect.

That said, this handicap has not prevented Peckham from becoming the most popular of Southwark’s 13 branch libraries. Over the past year, it has attracted 35,000 visits a month, more than its counterpart in the leafy suburb of Dulwich and 9% above the target set by the council.

Membership of the library is higher than the borough average for all age groups up to 44, and this popularity reaches its peak for teenagers, who record a 14% membership within the population of 15-to-19 year olds – twice the average in Southwark. This partly fulfils the vision of Daniel Olsen, the former borough librarian and building client, who argued that the only way to hook people as library users was to attract the under-10s.

The main library hall on the fourth floor is an expansive, double-height space punctuated by three of Alsop’s trademark pods: large gourd-shaped enclosures floating in the upper void. This weird arrangement combines 60 secluded study spaces below the three pods with light and airy areas for shelving and circulation.

From 9am, when the library opens on weekdays, the desks fill up rapidly with students and others looking for quiet study space with or without an internet-connected terminal. According to librarian Linda Foster, the 25 PC terminals record a 94% usage. Beyond that, she notes that a wireless broadband network was installed in 2006, and this has attracted a group of internet users who bring their own laptops.

“It’s calm, quiet and a big space,” says student John Salmon. He adds that the library is well stocked and staff are “very helpful”. Fellow student Cathy Asante also likes the spaciousness. But she also points to a deficiency: “Sometimes I’m here all day and I’d like something to eat, but there’s no cafe.”

As for the pods, these are not living up to their promise, even though their external patchwork coats of paper-thin plywood shingles remain fascinating and unblemished. The central one is an open mezzanine floor that floats like a dinghy over the library shelving below. It had been fitted out as an Afro-Caribbean library, but Foster says: “Books looked incongruous there, and people didn’t go up to visit it.” Accordingly, she brought the collection downstairs and refurnished the pod with four-square study desks, which also look incongruous.

Peckham has become the most popular library in Southwark. Over the past year, it has attracted 35,000 visits a month  

One of the two enclosed pods had been designated as a toddlers’ den reached from the children’s library by a narrow spiral staircase. But Foster keeps most toddlers’ activities in the lower library, which is, in any case, a more attractive space. The other pod is a slightly forlorn, bare, windowless meeting room lined in wood-chip wallpaper.

By far the most entertaining pods are a couple of study carrels just large enough to accommodate a brace of hobbits. They are housed in the compact local history library on the second floor, but history librarian Bob Askew finds them annoying as they get in the way of shelving and circulation.

As to the mystery of why the library hall should have been hoisted five storeys above pavement level, the answer is only revealed when you step out of the lift. Continuous windows stretch along its north and south sides, and these display breathtaking panoramas of London.

It is the children’s library on the north side that exploits the views to most exhilarating effect. From here, the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, the Gherkin and the whole skyline of central London are on display. The clear-glazed double-height window wall also frames a vast amount of sky, and a random pattern of large panes tinted pale yellow, pink or blue add to the spectacle. Little wonder that Foster has all but abandoned the enclosed children’s pod.

Down at the building’s main entrance, the scene is glaringly different. The small door is cut out of a continuous, prison-like facade of wire mesh. The entrance lobby is cramped and municipal and offers visitors no enticement to view the splendours a short lift ride away. Even the award plaques from the RIBA and the Civic Trust have been hidden away.

These awards have spread the fame of Peckham library across the world. In recent months, Foster has received groups of visitors from Croatia, Nebraska and South Korea, and has even presented a paper at a conference in Singapore.

So is the library better known and more admired overseas than in its home neighbourhood? This is stretching things too far. In Building’s straw poll of visitors, most were attracted by architectural as well as practical matters. “It’s a building that draws young people like myself,” says Salmon, who adds: “It makes me less bored when I’m here.” Fodaay Kamara says: “It looks very wonderful from the outside, and it’s the same inside.” The strongest praise come from assistant librarian Lesley Palmer, who says: “I absolutely love it here. It’s like a spaceship and it’s always busy. I’ve been here four years and I don’t want to move to another library.”

After nine years of operation, what has been the impact of the library on the social well-being of Peckham? “The library is a beacon that pulls people towards it,” says its literary development officer, Sandra Agard, who reels off a series of the bookish events that helps this process. “Children and adults are proud to use this world-famous building, so it shapes the community.”

Southwark council is now ruled by a Lib Dem–Tory coalition, but it has not dismissed the library as the weird indulgence of a previous regime. Just the opposite: it intends to develop another library building as the centrepiece of regeneration of nearby Surrey Quays. An “iconic” building stands near the top of its published wishlist for this proposed library, Piers Gough has been appointed architect, and his design is shaped like an inverted concrete pyramid. So the free-thinking, rule-breaking spirit of Peckham Library lives on in inner-city Southwark.

Will Alsop vs the vandals of Peckham

How does Will Alsop’s outlandish chunk of look-at-me designer architecture stand up to the wear and tear and vandalism of the tough, gritty, inner-city district it stands in? The answer is not too badly on the whole, although with one glaring exception. A more intractable problem is that, being a special architect-designed building using non-standard products, it is difficult, costly and time-consuming to repair. The exceptional vandal damage and the repair problems are both exemplified in the window wall covering the entire north face of the building. In a savage act of vandalism, six of the storey-height double-glazed panels at ground-floor level were smashed, three of them by air-gun pellets. Putting a brave face on the incident, librarian Linda Foster says: “I’ve worked in buildings in leafy suburbs, where you find broken windows every Monday morning. Here it’s only happened once, but it’s going to be a big job to put right.” She then explains that glazed panels were no longer produced by the original supplier and instead had to be procured from France, while the tinted film had to be supplied by the original architect. Meanwhile the repair costs had risen to £48,000, and the unsightly smashed panels have remained untouched and open to view for several months. Alsop decided to protect the main entrance side of the building much more securely with a strong chain-mail of metal mesh (pictured). The side walls are clad above first storey height in green patinated copper panels, a few of which are blotchy after graffiti was removed by sandblaster. Another irritating maintenance problem concerns the recessed ceiling lights in the library hall. As the hall is a double-height space and access is restricted to a pair of passenger lifts and a narrow staircase, scaffolding must be laboriously erected to replace the light bulbs, and since the library is open seven days a week, this means overnight. But in its first year of operation, the library was closed for a week just for this single routine activity. These days, bulbs are replaced out of opening hours, but on the day of Building’s visit several bulbs had failed and were waiting for this occasion. Last year, Southwark council outsourced all maintenance and repair work to several private firms. Since then, even day-to-day maintenance and repairs are lackadaisical. Assistant librarian Lesley Palmer says the heating system is often out of action, and library user Birger Lindberg from Sweden is annoyed by lift breakdowns. “Every second week they don’t work,” he says. On the plus side, it is a relatively low-energy building with no air-conditioning, though librarian Foster concedes: “It is true that the library does get quite stuffy in the summer months.” Accordingly, standalone air-conditioning units were retrofitted in the two enclosed pods and the main staff office.

Changing rooms

The building’s innate adaptability is demonstrated by the One Stop Shop (above), which lies next to the lift lobby on the ground floor and dispenses all council services including Homesearch for people on its housing waiting list. The One Stop Shop is intensively used, dealing with 300 inquiries a day, according to manager Carla Walker. Accordingly, it was expanded in 2006 by 70% in floor area by adding a mezzanine floor, compact fit-out and air-conditioning designed by Alexei Marmot Associates. The building’s double-height space was able to accommodate the extra mezzanine floor, its robust reinforced-concrete frame designed by Adams Kara Taylor took the additional load without needing new foundations, and dead space below its escape-stair landing housed the new air-handling unit. Only the air-conditioning chillers could not be fitted into the original building and have instead been installed in a 2m high black box a few paces away.

Original print headline: ‘Peckham turns over a new leaf’

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Addressing Energy Efficient Lighting and Ventilation in Libraries: A Case Study of Peckham Library, London, UK

2021, Global scientific journal

Lighting and ventilation are the main factors which influences the amount of energy consumed in a Library, as human comfort within a space requires a reasonable amount of light and airflow. Buildings that are not energy efficient require more mechanical/electrical devices to achieve thermal cooling in tropical areas and thermal heating for cold regions. In Nigeria, most buildings hardly take energy efficiency into consideration due to ignorance, poverty, lack of awareness and/or improper policy on building regulations by Government. But as a cultural service institution, libraries should take the initiative to protect the environment, rather than adding to the continuous degradation of the natural environment. Use of mechanical devices to attain thermal comfort in buildings is not only capital intensive but also generate greenhouse gases, air and noise pollution amongst others. Apart from the use of energy efficient lighting fixtures, Libraries should be designed to be energy efficient by providing large windows for natural ventilation and natural light. And provision of naturally ventilated open spaces such as court yards for proper airflow within the habitable spaces. This paper looks at measures to effectively reduce the amount of energy consumed in a Library, by reviewing the case study of Peckham Library; which was designed to be energy efficient by relying more on natural lighting and ventilation, rather than mechanical means. The data collected is structured, analysed and interpreted to understand practical ways on how energy efficient lighting and ventilation can be achieved in libraries. Therefore the scope of this paper aims at: Promoting energy efficiency in the design and construction of libraries.

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dr amira Elsonbaty

International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

International Journal of Scientific Research in Science, Engineering and Technology IJSRSET , Moses Iorakaa AYOOSU

In buildings, natural ventilation is for human comfort; for odour removal, body and the structure cooling. A previous study revealed that libraries in Nigeria could not function efficiently without artificial ventilation and lighting. Artificial ventilation, aside from economic disadvantages, it is not reliable and anti-sustainability while natural ventilation is reliable, consume less energy, and in other words, it is more efficient when compared with other types of ventilation. The research evaluates the application of passive architectural strategies for natural ventilation in libraries within the hot-humid climate of Nigeria, intending to recommend natural ventilation strategies in libraries. Ten (10) libraries were selected randomly in the study area from both institutional and public libraries. The research conducted using observation schedule, the variables in the research are; Window types, Clerestory windows availability, Door openings, Screen walls, Courtyard, Other openings, use of external shading devices and orientation of the library. The data analysed using descriptive statistic; the results presented using tables, bar charts and pie charts. The research revealed that 29% of the cases studied use external vertical structural shading devices, 36% use horizontal shading devices, 21% use both vertical and horizontal shading devices to deflect solar radiation and 14% do not use any external shading devices. 80% of the libraries studied was oriented toward north-south (NS) direction, while 20% oriented toward east-west (EW) direction. Therefore, the majority of the libraries studied have desired orientation; however, each lacks one of the passive cooling strategies. Adequate natural ventilation in the libraries is achievable by the proper synthesis of the building orientation, proper design of building internal spaces, the proper position of window openings and use of projected window as well as clearstory. More so, further study to enhance natural ventilation configuration for the study area is desirable.

IJAR Indexing

Climate change is real and felt globally. Climatic factors such as intense solar radiation, high humidity and condensation, dust and sandstorms and flood affects the comfort of man and safety of built environment. Most of the climatic changes are due to human activities in the environment, particularly the built environment. These suggest that human activities and physical constituents of built environment interact with other climate drivers. These prompt the need for response,and response to climate change falls into two phases-mitigating and adaptation. Therefore, this paper discusses how climate change can be mitigated through green architecture in Nigeria. In this light, the paper will be a conceptual paper.The library research method was used in this study to gather secondary data from textbooks, articles and journals to develop a conceptual framework on how green architectural practices can be used to mitigate climate change in order to sustain built environment in Nigeria. This paper adopts the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) (2015) principles of green building and sustainable site design. It highlights climatic changes and their effects in Nigeria. It further discusses the concept and principles of green architecture. The study concludes that Nigerian built environment is vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Therefore, there is need for architects, builders, engineers and clients to promote and adopt green architectural practices in order to mitigate the effect of climate change for sustainable environment.

The rapid population growth, associated urbanization, and infrastructure development resulted in adverse impact on the environment, which is becoming increasingly alarming and creating many challenges. These circumstances have made the concept of “Green Buildings and Sustainable Built Environment” a necessity rather than an option. This research studies and introduces the environmental considerations for green and sustainable architecture, it aims to identify the factors that affect green building design and sustainable urban development. It also defines various elements and procedures required to achieve a successful green design. Furthermore, the study classifies the main factors that drive the urban development in the Gulf region that can improve the energy efficiency and the quality of the built environment in hot countries, such as Saudi Arabia and similar climatic zones. The research methodology is based on case study approach to analyze and evaluate concerning environmental considerations. It combines observation and qualitative research methods. This research attempts to fill a gap in the literature concerning green built environment considerations in Saudi Arabia in particular and the Gulf region in general.

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET)

Pratish Rawat

Currently, about 40% of the world's energy consumption is used in buildings. In India, with the improvement of living standards and the improvement of living standards, the energy consumption of cooling/heating in buildings is also increasing. The document presents a study based on a survey conducted in residential buildings in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. This survey was conducted to evaluate the influence of various parameters such as orientation, window/wall ratio, open areas around buildings, window areas exposed to direct solar radiation, planting, shading, natural lighting, energy consumption in summer and winter Wait. The results have been analyzed for thermal comfort conditions. Controlling this direct sunlight gain can be used as a measure to increase energy savings and thermal comfort. The method of controlling direct solar gain has been discussed in this document. Describes energysaving opportunities and makes recommendations. From the perspective of optimally designing new residential buildings, this research is useful and can also reduce the energy consumption of existing buildings through some simple measures.

European Scientific Journal ESJ

When designing schools, universities, or any educational centers, daylight in classrooms is usually one of the essential issues that take the architect's attention. Its importance comes from the fact that daylight can impact students' health, mood, and visual performance. Providing an appropriate amount of uniformly distributed light with glare protection is a significant factor in classroom design (Zomorodian Z S, 2016). This study is based on a literature review, studies, and articles researching the effect of daylight in a classroom environment on students' performance. It tends to define the significance of daylight design in the learning environment. This paper also deals with specifying and exploring all the conditions, factors, and elements that contribute to creating this successful daylight design in classrooms. Besides, it investigates the daylight design of the buildings at the campus of Sarajevo that will, later on, contribute to the creation of a design manual of all the considerations that need to be taken for schools and educational centers' daylight design. The study is conducted at the campus of Sarajevo in the academic year 2019. The literature review, data study, and previous studies define the significance of daylight in the classroom environment and show the correlation between daylight and students' achievement in the classroom environment. It defines the elements and conditions of successful daylight design in classroom settings. The study explored the current state of the daylight design at the campus of Sarajevo detecting its lacks and obstacles regarding adequate illumination. Based on the literature review, an appropriate solution for the investigated classroom environment has been designed.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CREATIVE RESEARCH THOUGHTS

Adithya Sainath , sangeeta das

This paper aims to find out the contributions of the day lighting system and to reduce the artificial lighting system are simultaneously taken into account. The concept behind this is that to increase the use of day lighting by sustainable strategies in order to decrease the amount of load in artificial lighting. Different typology of the building is taken into consideration to understand the amount of light we need in different workspace. It will be understand how to reduce artificial lighting by low-light fixture and fill the gap where day lighting is not possible to reach the working space. Daylight is important in a work space to make the indoor environment comfortable to work and more productive. So finding strategies to improve the day lighting helps in improving the indoor environment. Also, low-light fixtures are also there so that energy consumption is less and according to the typology and need of the building artificial lighting can be used in places where day lighting is not available.

One of the most important issues in sustainable development is energy saving. Static methods of heating and cooling buildings are one of methods of saving fossil fuels. In discussing sustainable development and therefore sustainable architecture, the obvious fact is that every building must interact with its surrounding natural environment. The controversial and significant aspect of this fact is manner of interacting and type of considered measures. In this study, stepped villages of East Azarbaijan, Iran were studied and Passive solutions in heating and cooling buildings were analyzed. Finally, data obtained in the two tables, which show the passive cooling and heating procedure in regional villages are presented. In this article, a survey – analytical methodology is used. Finally, the overall result was that renewable energies such as solar and wind were used as methods of creating thermal comfort in villages of the studied area and minimal use of nonrenewable energies has been made. Moreover, the south orientation of villages plays an important role in benefiting from the sunlight. Also, villages are located on a sloped ground, as a result of which parts of buildings are dug into the ground and the thermal mass of the earth is utilized as a source of comfort for residents. At last, the method obtained from the vernacular architecture can be used as a model in today modern architecture that maximizes the use of fossil fuels.

ishika agarwal

Journal of International Academic Research For Multidisciplinary (JIARM), ISSN: 2320-5083, Journal Impact Factor (2015): 1.625

Prof. (Dr.) Jayeshkumar Pitroda

A building that uses both technology and process, to create a facility that is safe, healthy, comfortable and enables productivity, well-being of its occupants is called intelligent building. With lots of energy crisis in today`s world, it is very important for architects, engineers and construction managers make buildings which are energy efficient, intelligent by its functions and usage, too. Technologies applied in intelligent buildings will improve the building environment and functionality for occupants, while reducing operational costs. An intelligent building has an implicit logic that effectively evolves with changing user requirements and technology, ensuring continued and improved intelligent operation, maintenance and optimization. It exhibits key attributes of environmental sustainability to benefit present and future generations. The notion of the Intelligent Building is the modern civil engineer's big idea of tackling these deficiencies. An intelligent building must be smart enough to vary the environment to suit the users and also to provide various means of communication or network regardless of whether it is internal or external. This paper provides a review of research era in the area of Intelligent Building.

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Copper clad high-rise library featuring internal learning ‘pods’ and a two-storey cantilever 12 meters above ground level, supported on leaning steel columns with concrete infill and a bifurcated steel truss

The public library at Peckham, south London, completed late in 1999, is part of a concerted programme of regeneration and community growth for this part of the borough of Southwark and forms one element in a new public square. The architectural approach responds to a client brief which seeks to redefine the role of the library in the local community.

The Peckham model proposes that the 21 st century library should reach out to the community, encourage access to knowledge and embrace the diversity of the local population.

The Peckham Library is supported on concrete-filled steel columns, angled to form an irregular arcade which encloses a covered space, an extension of the new square.

External claddings are chosen for durability and for their expressive textures and colours, pre-patinated copper and steel mesh contrast with coloured glass (used on the north facade). The library itself is at fourth floor level, the short arm of an inverted 'L', with offices, meeting rooms and other ancillary facilities on the lower floors.

• Begun: Feb 1998
• Completed: Feb 2000
• Floor area: 2,300m 2
• Sectors: Civic, Education
• Total cost: £4.5M
• Address: 122 Peckham Hill Street, London, SE15 5JR, United Kingdom

Cantilever , Library , London , London Borough of Southwark , Open House 2014 , Open House 2015 , RIBA Award , Stirling Prize winner , Tall building , Working detail: Fit out , Working detail: Structure

Concrete , Copper cladding , Glazed facade , Steel columns

Professional Team

• Architect: Alsop and Stormer
• Project architects: Christophe Egret , Will Alsop
• Client: London Borough of Southwark, Education and Leisure Department
• Structural engineer: Adams Kara Taylor
• Quantity surveyor: Franklin and Andrews
• Services engineer: Battle McCarthy
• Main contractor: Sunley Turriff Construction
• Project manager: Southwark Building Design Services
• Acoustic consultant: Applied Acoustic Design
• Landscape consultant: Jenny Coe
• Lighting consultant: Concord Lighting
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Peckham Library and Media Centre

The library takes the form of an inverted L-shape with the horizontal level block, raised 12 metres above the ground, supported on one side by raking angled columns and on the other by the vertical block.

At ground level, a new public space is created below the overhang of the building, which in summer will accommodate open-air events. In addition, the cantilevered block provides shading to the south-facing main façade. Two-metre-high stainless steel LIBRARY letters, an orange beret sunshield projecting over the front of the building and the apex of two interior pods puncturing the roofline contribute to the building s dramatic silhouette.

The horizontal block contains the building s centrepiece - the main lending library - and the children s library to the north side. The five-storey vertical block houses the lobby, entrance foyer and information area at ground level, with a multimedia centre and staff administration on the upper floors. The naturally lit double-height space of the main library is dominated by three ovoid pods on stilts, two of which puncture through the building s roofline. The pods, which house a children s activity area, African Caribbean literature centre and meeting room, are accessed by a spiral staircase from the library floor or a bridge walkway from the vertical block. The front elevation and soffit are dressed with an undulating mesh screen and the south, east and west walls are clad in pre-patinated copper with recessed framed green and blue glass windows set flush with the copper face. The north and south elevations facing the vertical block are clad with clear and brightly coloured glass.

Peckham library has been designed to minimise the need for mechanical systems and fossil fuels by maximising the use of natural energies. The vertical block is naturally ventilated through the curtain wall. In the deep double-height areas of the library, air is drawn in from beneath the soffit to create a stack effect with air expelled through the pod skylight and clerestory drum. Efficient nighttime cooling is assisted by the exposed concrete structure of the vertical block.

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Peckham Library revisited

The Will Alsop-designed Peckham Library won the 2000 Stirling Prize, wowing the judging panel with its ‘eye-catching’ design. We revisit the library to see how it was built and to remind ourselves of the design ethos behind its Alsopesque features which include the now familiar wonky columns, cantilevered floor spaces and pods. And we ask, 12 years on, does the library continue to have that ‘wow’ factor that so impressed the 2000 Stirling Judges?

Key learning:

• Alsop’s design ethos
• Engineering the cantilevered overhang
• The building’s various cladding materials
• Visitor experiences and how the library is perceived by its users
• The role of architecture in terms of regeneration
• Maintenance and designing out vandalism

About the contributors

George Wade is an architect who has worked with Will Alsop for 10 years on projects including Fawood Childrens Centre and Bradford Bowl. In October 2011 Alsop set up ALL Design, a multi-disciplinary studio, with Scott Lawrie within Alsop's creative hub Testbed1 in Battersea. George is currently working on the design of a bus station in Toronto, an extension to Alsop's RIBA award-winning Blizard Building in London, a pod hotel and a series of prototype street kiosks.

Martin Spring is a freelance architectural journalist and writer. During his 38 year career in architectural journalism, he served 31 years as architectural editor of Building magazine and five years editing Architectural Design. Over that period he has won acclaim in an Honorary RIBA Fellowship and 33 national awards and commendations. He is currently writing books and booklets and appearing in films about prominent architects and the building industry.

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Case Study: Peckham Library, London (UK)

Opened in 2000, this library designed by Alsop and Stormer is meant to attract people to a low class area of London. It looks like an inverted L Read More

Creative fields.

Architecture

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Peckham Library.

Will Alsop made a name for himself with bold, even eccentric, designs, so when Southwark Council commissioned him to design a new library as part of the regeneration of Peckham Square they knew to expect colour, shape and texture from the structure.

A Stirling Prize-winning library of steel and concrete, renowned for its innovative form

With suspended ‘pods’ which protrude through the roof and a propped, cantilevered ‘horizontal block’, its idiosyncratic aesthetics defined the building’s make-up, and had to be carefully considered by us in the design stages. It was particularly crucial to ensure that the design met the aspirations of both the architect and its future patrons, so we upheld ongoing communication between all parties throughout the process. Remarkably, given the limitations of technology at the time, we also developed a prototype BIM system, producing a collaborative 3D model alongside the architects.

Its emphasis on a connection with the community is manifested in the shape of the building. The library is raised 12 m above the ground to provide its users with impressive views of London, and also offers a paved plaza below, creating a ‘circular hub’ for pedestrian access.

We made a statement with its materials, with green sides of pre-patinated copper and multi-coloured structural glazing on the main elevation. Spectacular when back-lit, the design lays bare the function of the interior.

To achieve support for the horizontal block, we specified a structure incorporating long-span steel trusses connecting to the concrete-framed main block. The cantilevered block is then supported via a system of inclined steel tubes rising from ground level and connected to the main floor plate and upper roof structure.

The curved pods provided study spaces, as well as natural ventilation. We considered a variety of material options including sprayed concrete and composite plastics, but settled on timber-framed microlam. This achieved a balance between budget and ease of manufacture and minimised the load bearing onto the cantilevered structure.

2002 Civic Trust Award

2001 BCIA Special Award for Social Contribution

2001 AIA London / UK Excellence in Design Award

2000 RIBA Stirling Prize

2000 RIBA Award

2000 Millennium Special Products Award

2000 Copper in Architecture Award – highly commended

Home Projects Peckham Library.

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CASE STUDY 4 Peckham Library

9 May 2002 · By AJ Contributor

Peckham Library and Media Centre is one of the most successful libraries to be built in recent years, not least because it turns on its head the traditional notion of what a library building is or should be and how it should serve the local community. It is also one of the first buildings in the UK to make extensive use of the Vanceva Design laminated glass system. The building's bold, colourful, eye-catching design - which injects much-needed vibrancy and fun into a particularly unremarkable suburb of south London - is typical of the iconoclastic design approach emanating from the office of Alsop Architects.

Part of the major urban regeneration of the area, the bold, streetwise design philosophy of the building played a large part in helping the practice win the £5 million project. Commissioned by Southwark's Education and Leisure Services, Alsop Architects was asked to 'create a building of architectural merit that would bring prestige to the borough and a welcome psychological boost to the area'. Clearly, the architect thought deeply about the potential of coloured laminated glass.

The completed building has surpassed all expectations. It won the prestigious Stirling Prize for Building of the Year in 2000, when judges lauded the scheme as 'one delight after another' and called it 'an extraordinary and innovative design'.Marco Goldschmied, then president of the RIBA, described Peckham Library as 'innovative and exciting' and 'a building to make you smile: more architecture should do that'.

Character forming The building's character derives as much from its unusual form - an upturned Lshape on stilts - as from the use of bold colour to enliven the elevations. In this respect, Solutia's Vanceva Design laminated glass interlayers, used as external cladding, play a significant part in making the fivestorey, 2,300m 2building a dramatic insertion in the local urban environment.

The north side of the building is glazed with various-sized clear and coloured laminated glass panels in yellow, orange, green and red. These contrast with the east and west elevations which are clad in more subdued pre-patinated copper and accentuated by green and blue glazing. Inside, the light and airy feeling is enhanced by the perimeter skylight and the careful arrangement of window openings.

Flexible uses Clearly, the Vanceva Design laminated glass interlayers used throughout the building play an important role in creating the overall ambience . 'It has been very exciting being involved in the Peckham Library project, ' says Philip Oesau of Solutia. 'Ten years ago it would not have been possible to produce a building using glass in this way but, due to advances in technology, the architects were able to create a building spectacular in design through the application of coloured laminated glass. I think we will be seeing more adventurous and flexible uses of multi-variable coloured glass in the future.'

As well as fulfilling the architect's aesthetic intentions, the laminated glass made with Solutia's Vanceva Design interlayer system give the library enhanced safety and security, as well as sound and solar control.

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Architect: Alsop Architects, UK Laminator: Plyglass Project completed:2000

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