What textures do you want to feel in the library?

In his book, The Eyes of the Skin, Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa says: ‘touch is the most primary experience in architecture because the senses of the skin are the mediator between the skin and the world’. With our skin we are able to distinguish smoothness and roughness, weight, density, temperature and humidity. Yet, while touch is perhaps the most profound and informative sense we have, it is often neglected in library design. We want to explore if the right tactile mixture can help us create warm and welcoming spaces with different atmospheres, for example to help people concentrate or to stimulate cooperation. But haptic design can also be applied to the outside of the building, like architects Neutelings Riedijk have done for library Rozet in Arnhem. Here, the facade of the library is composed of concrete elements decorated with Penrose diagrams, symbolising the infinitely growing knowledge in the building.

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Public Library (LocHal) Tilburg (Nl)

The former locomotive workshop LocHal in Tilburg, theNetherlands (a steel and glass factory built in 1932 by NedTrain) has been transformed into a monumental public city hall that houses the Central Brabant Library, Seats2Meet, Kunstloc and Brabant C. More

Materials Library | Qatar

The Materials Library is a unique resource developed to inspire creative use of new and interesting materials by students, faculty, artists and designers. The library collects, preserves and makes available a wide variety of unusual, innovative and sustainable materials and product samples. These may be borrowed for research and used in presentations. There is a special emphasis on Materials available in Qatar.
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Public Library Arnhem (Nl)

Material-Archiv Winterthur (Ch)

Anfassen erlaubt! Ob Glas, Metall, Holz, Papier, Kunststoff, Gesteine, Keramik, Farbpigmente, Textilien oder auch Leder – das permanent eingerichtete Material-Archiv ist ein interaktives Labor für Materialrecherchen. More

Ornament and Identity

Ornament and Identity is the successor of the well-received At Work, a publication by renowned Rotterdam based architecture firm Neutelings Riedijk.

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Texture Palace

One of the most frustrating and time-consuming exercises in using Photoshop is the endless search for high-quality material textures. This demand has led to the creation of many dispersed online libraries, allowing users to download royalty-free, high-resolution textures for almost any material. One such site is Texture Palace, offering an extensive, Flickr-based library with high-quality concrete, timber, steel, and many other textures.