CHILDRENS LIBRARIES
GREECE

The Children’s and Adolescents Libraries Organisation, the brainchild of Annette Schlumberger, was founded to give children, in distant and sometimes underprivileged areas of Greece, the experience of a meaningful library through focused and innovative programmes.

Sgoutas Architects have been, for the past 20 years, the consulting architects of this organisation. The scope of their work included, apart from the design and supervision of the libraries, the selection of buildings suitable to house these libraries. Overall, more than 15 generally small buildings have been converted into libraries for children and adolescents in urban and rural centres such as Lavrio (listed building), Miki, Trikala, Syros (listed Ziller building), Mataranga, Konitsa, Vlachioti, Xylagani etc., covering a total surface area of over 5000m².

As most of these buildings were evocative of an older, different way of construction, the design and modifications were in keeping with the character of the original buildings. A design concept was developed ensuring a common, for all, aesthetic and functional approach, always taking into consideration the different nature of each building.

Design Team

Architects

Sgoutas Architects

Structural Engineers

E.Antonoulas

MEP Consultants

Tekem Ltd.

Project completed 1995 - 2005
Ecological Library
Situated on a rural site in the area of Spata, the Ecological Library for children takes its spiral form from nature. Its ascending shape creates an uplifting feeling which becomes the determining aesthetic factor of the library.

For the design of the Ecological Library, the spiral chosen is the “Archimedes spiral”, its width remaining the same between two consecutive turns. The spiral form urges the visitor/user to follow a circular route having as its central focal point the internal court/garden while at the same time allowing for free movement within the library. Exposed concrete, on both inside and outside, and colour enhance the overall concept.

Design Team

Architects

Sgoutas Architects

Structural Engineers

S.Rodis

MEP Consultants

Tekem S.A.

Design completed 2010
Music Library
Aspropyrgos is an area outside Athens with a large presence of roma (gypsies), some with permanent houses, while a few still live as nomads. Their innate propensity to music was at the start of the idea of a music library for the children of this minority. The library focuses on the teaching of instruments through the use of books.

Inspiration for the building came from the “treble clef” to which it owes its form. The pitched metal roofs and the metal cladding on the walls both refer to the characteristics of gypsy houses and to ephemeral structures. The interior consists of a large open space with a number of small music booths protruding from the basic volume of the building.

Design Team

Architects

Sgoutas Architects

Structural Engineers

Ch.Kechris & Associates

MEP Consultants

Tekem Ltd.

Design completed 2001
Prototype Library
The brief required a design for a prototype “ephemeral” structure that would house small children’s libraries to be installed in public open spaces of Athens.

Walls, of variable height, fold in the form of crooked planes to create the spaces housing each of the libraries. The planes terminate, at different angles, at high points of variable height, thus creating roof shapes in the form of “bird wings”. The overall geometry of the libraries appears, in this way, different from every side. The materials used are environment-friendly, quick to erect and easy to dismantle.

Design Team

Architects

Sgoutas Architects

Design completed 2011