ergotpoisoning OP t1_j4vnxr9 wrote on January 18, 2023 at 4:12 PM

I lived in Aarhus for a while in 2016/17 and can confirm that Dokk1 is the best library in the world. Just the most incredible resource for the citizens and visitors, an example of what public buildings should be like everywhere.

Musicman1972 t1_j4w1bzl wrote on January 18, 2023 at 5:34 PM

I love a good library.

Have you ever been to Stuttgart? The library there is beautiful'

https://www.archdaily.com/193568/stuttgart-city-library-yi-architects

ergotpoisoning OP t1_j4w3u51 wrote on January 18, 2023 at 5:50 PM

Never been to Stuttgart but that looks fantastic!

jayb40132 t1_j4y5tjt wrote on January 19, 2023 at 2:00 AM

Oh man, I had completely forgotten about it! Was stationed by rammstein in 03-04 and we went to Stuttgart just bumming around, we were talking in the restaurant and a local recommended we stop by there and take a look, it was awesome just the scale of it

ThatWeLike t1_j4yuty4 wrote on January 19, 2023 at 5:18 AM

I have lived five minutes away from it, since the week after it opened in 2015. Have done a ton of uni work at there, as I didn't want to ride my bike up the hill on to AU. It was the convenient option - not the best option.

In my experience, the building actually mostly functions a citizen service center for the municipality, where you can get passports/driver's licenses renewed, get your pension, move address etc. At least if you look at what the majority of people are there for, and not that department's footprint in the building. I could be wrong, but it sure feels that way.

To me, Dokk1 is a big bulding that happens to also hold books. With embarrassingly scarce proper seating and not a lot of either peace nor quiet. The building's cool and all, but as a library, functionally, I don't think it should be even on a top 100. Where are you supposed to read/work? Five tiny(!) private group study rooms for a city with more than 50k students. When kids run around screaming upstairs/on the ramp, or there's an event going on in the open, that's not enough if you want to have a great library imo.

Sure, you can get books, and if you're lucky, they even have the one you're looking for on hand, and not at one of their 10 other/old branches in some suburb, as they have only one copy between them all. They usually can get it to their branch within a day or two.

I'd like to know the real reason it won a prize as a library, because it would be odd to me, if it wasn't simply the architecture, that was commended.

Edit: I sound ranty. I guess I had some real dog shit days there the last few times, trying to study there for exams, so that's probably why. Shit seats, loud kids, and a Street Fighter tournament taking over the whole ramp area at 15.30 on a Thursday, when all students in the city were studying for their exams. Everyone looked pissed.