Student participants:
Agata Wciślok, Aleksandra Liszewska, Anselm Hoyer, Benjamin Liberwirth, Christine Schmitz, Katarína Ambrosová, Magda Mojsiejuk, Michał Czeszejko-Sochacki.
The University Library in Poznań is the main academic library in the Wielkopolska region. It is a unit of the Adam Mickiewicz University established for the purpose of facilitating its academic and didactic goals. At the same time, this is also a public library, accessible for everyone who is interested in knowledge contained in both historical and contemporary sources. Nowadays, the Library is an important cultural centre of Poznań, despite its academic nature it is available to all inhabitants of the city. It has over 23,000 registered users to whom it lends over 700,000 books annually. The library and its employees willingly commit themselves to all activities promoting readership and building the society of knowledge.
ACTIVITIES
Cultural events are an important area of activity of the Library. Every year around 100 events are held or organized here. The peak of activity is the Library Week in May, during which numerous guests take part in meetings and lectures, and visit the otherwise inaccessible places in the buildings. Numerous exhibitions are held in the Library. The themes usually include: modern arts, travel photos and literary undertakings. The most notable literature-related meetings include the Dyskusyjny Klub Książki (“Discussion Book Club”). Events devoted to comics and fantasy are also very popular.
USERS
Users of the Library mostly consist of students and scholars visiting the place every day, However, the cultural events also attract other groups of people, including children and seniors. Literary meetings and workshops usually involve a dozen or so participants. Several times a year, during the largest events, the Library is visited by crowds of guests.
FINAL RESULTS
The administration of the Library is open to any ideas. A great, undiscovered potential is hiding in the historical courtyard with a beautiful green square between the main building of the Library and the post-war building which is now a parking for employees. But the board was keen on changes. This area was indicated by the Library’s employees to be the project task for participants of the workshops. The team decided to create a set of seats which uses already existing construction, among others: the seats are on a brick platform at the green square or stone structures near sculptures of artists from Poznań. Besides the seats, they made eight 4-meters posts with bored holes at different heights. When they are placed in particular places in the courtyard, they will direct the gazes of visitors to particular architectural details of the courtyard. Workshop participants put on the posts quotes from their favourite books. The posts and seats created during workshops may be freely configured. Owing to that, they can be used in different ways, depending on the needs. From the abovementioned furniture, one can make tables for workshops, an exhibition system or bookcrossing shelves.
Student participants:
Agata Wciślok, Aleksandra Liszewska, Anselm Hoyer, Benjamin Liberwirth, Christine Schmitz, Katarína Ambrosová, Magda Mojsiejuk, Michał Czeszejko-Sochacki.
Architects from Czech Republic
Nicol Galeova
Studied architecture at Technical University in Brno, practiced in Finland and Sweden. She pacticipated at several workshops and exhibitions around Europe, since 2002 is leading her own Colllab studio and teaching at Faculty of Architecture, Technical University, Brno.
Petr Smidek
Studied architecture under Jura Oplatek at Technical University in Brno and Emil Přikryl at Academy for Fine Arts in Prague. Further education he gained during studies at the Technical Universities in Dresden and Ljubljana. Practiced architecture in various offices in Germany and USA. Since 2001 is co-founder of internet project www.archiweb.cz – responsible for foreign architecture section. Since 2008 is teaching at Technical university in Liberec.