Max Webber Library

Blacktown is the largest population local government area in NSW with a very diverse ethnic community and mixed socio-economic group of varying educational levels. The new library has been specifically designed to address the diverse requirements of this regional community and the changing role of the 21st Century library. The design focused on creating a dynamic, innovative and adaptable place: keeping options open, able to anticipate community needs, allowing for changes in emphasis and services over time, and able to accommodate emerging library service opportunities and technological advancements. The organisational arrangements tailored functional requirements with the spatial characteristics and qualities. Consideration of light and shade, openness, enclosure and ambience were matched to specific functions to create synergy for a Library of the Future. The Max Webber Library was a complex project developed on a very restricted site simultaneously with an adjacent shopping centre and civic square. The project includes a multi-level basement carpark below a two-storey volume of over 5,000sqm. Within this volume the full range of library functions are accommodated including specialised areas for commuter access, children’s areas and quiet rooms as well as back of house facilities, offices and loading.

In addition to these core library functions and facilities the project includes flexible function spaces for up to 200 people, exhibition areas and an integrated cafe. The new library utilises state of the art technologies for its total service delivery. RFID technology is used to manage and audit the collection, allow patron self check issue, systematise cataloguing, identify collection usage and demand and automate self check-in (book returns) and book sorting. A series of strong and distinctive forms, elliptical void, triangular stair and cubic volume, give a sense of significance and honour to the interior. The strong horizontal extension and transparency, together with the gentle curving forms of the light baffles and skylights, give a complementing openness and looseness. Natural light is sculptured through a series of profile baffles and skylights to gently reveal and enhance their forms and materiality; to create a glow and lightness within the whole library. Within the interior natural materials of timber, brick and stone are intended to create not only warmth but also a depth to the surfaces and spaces.

Read more in Insights: IFLA LBES Mid-Year Seminar – Building Excellence: Global and Indigenous Trends in Library Design.