What do four libraries
designed by one firm
over three decades say
about the typology’s
evolution?
In OMA’s Book
Words
GILI MERIN
‘ONE SIMILARITY between architecture and book-
making is that both have unbelievably long traditions
but are also forced to be of the moment, constantly
updating in order to survive,’ says Rem Koolhaas,
director of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture
(OMA). Since its inception in 1975, the Dutch firm has
attempted to reinvent architecture by incorporat-156 LIBRARIES