Academic Libraries: Space Planning and Design Charrette

This is a sponsored event by the Harvard Graduate School of Design Executive Education.

Tour two Harvard libraries in this one-day program focused on the unique space and design challenges of academic libraries.

We will think about and test a range of aspects of space planning for academic libraries, including space design, understanding the library’s relationship with the broader institution, trends in academic libraries, and specific impacts on space design.

The pandemic and other external forces, such as economics, online learning, changing pedagogy, and new technologies are changing the ways in which students learn and each of these impacts how academic libraries are evolving their collecting priorities, the space taken up by collections, and new ways spaces are used in our libraries.

This class will focus on the specific aspects of academic libraries and how to think about designing new library spaces in academic institutions that meet the shifts we are experiencing and how our faculty and students are learning.