Abstract

The contradictions built into the architectural programs of library buildings result in a deep tension in library design between technical and human requirements, and this tension is often dramatized, not only in the conflict between symbolic and programmatic form, but in the very uses of the library. The Apollonian image of the library disguises a darker, more esoteric and private desire expressed in the often strange uses and abuses of the library. Architects have occasionally implicitly understood this dichotomy and expressed it in their structures.

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