Library @ Orchard

One of my earliest childhood memories was going down the Old National Library Building at Stamford Road. Those were the days you had to queue up and the librarian would stamp the due dates on a sheet of paper glued in the book. The thing I remembered most about the library was the distinct red bricks. Then, it got torn down. 

As I grew up, I slowly realised that with all that school work, a 3 weeks due date wasn't going to be practical. I bought books when they were on discount at Borders and it was a true joy to be flipping through those books and deciding the ones worth spending on. Then, Borders closed down.

Nowadays,  I do my shopping for books online on bookdepository.com or fishpond.com. When Kinokuniya holds their sales, I would go down and buy a few books as well. 

Going to Library @ Orchard didn't give me the nostalgic feel of visiting the library in my younger days. Instead, all I could think of was, things have really changed! Funky design concepts, endless racks of new magazines, it's really many notches up from the good old libraries. 

With the emphasis on personal space nowadays, there are nooks and crannies for people to enjoy the peace of being in a library.

A huge premium is placed on design here. The National Library worked with students and lecturers from the Singapore Polytechnic Design-Thinking Team to develop the spaces and features for the library. The shelves, bamboo floors and chairs were also from a home-grown furniture shop.

Two floors worth of books- I didn't really spend time looking at the catalogue because the design fascinated me way more.

I really like this space- it seems like it would be a good cosy venue for some performance of sorts.

They made use of the space below the stairs to store these disks. Overheard a wife telling her husband, "Please ah, you don't think all these very nice ah. All these collect a lot of dust ah. I am not going to clean all these shelves for you." Singaporeans' practicality at its best.

The magazine collection was also displayed in a reader-friendly fashion- you get to look at all the past issues by opening the cupboards and seeing what was available. Pity though, all the magazines I wanted to read about food and travel were mostly empty!

This place is a more than a library. This place is a design success and a chic place for people to hang out.

With this, libraries are no longer just for the nerds.