Den Bosch Library

After the rebranding that designers FoURPAcK introduced last year, Aquo architecture completed the project with refurbishing the building, which provides the city library of Den Bosch with a brand new interior. Besides a shorter name since the reopening, the ‘Bieb’ has been offering coffee and lunch alongside books and DVD’s. The Bieb is not only a source of knowledge accessible to everyone, but also a central meeting place. With the catering facilities and the library square as a venue for attending lectures and cultural events there arises more space for the social function of the library. The new style of the library also offers a higher degree of service. The refurbishment also coincides with the transition to a new self service lending system. The visitors of the library scan their borrowed books themselves without the intervention of an employee. The staff now have more of an advisory role. The applied materials give away the new identity of the building: contemporary elegant and durable. Each department has a distinctive colour and focuses on a specific target group. The colour serves as a direction for the use of the spaces and makes navigating the building easier. Opposite the attention grabbing colours of the interior the furniture is strikingly white. Catching your attention are three large white cubes in the orange youth department, where there is among others a homework room. There has been a clear search for a conscious creation of contrasts, in which a new harmony is created between the monumental building as host and the contemporary interior as guest.