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Karo Architects Interviewed by George Vasey May 2011

The Development of the Open Air Library began ve years ago when the community of Magdeburg staged an intervention in an abandoned district that formally housed a public library. A 1:1 scale model was developed using beer crates and overwhelming public support was shown with book donations that totaled more that 20,000. Occupying a central outdoor space, the Open Air Library operates a policy where residents are free to borrow books 24 hours a day. I am interested in this phrase 'library of condence, do you see the open air library as a utopian project? It is and is not. First we took the reality of the situation as resource. In this sense it is a realistic project. Second we believed in participation and aesthetics and it worked. Third we trusted people and the common sense and got terribly disappointed. There were several attacks of vandalism by drunken youths. Utopia is still on course and yes, I believe, we will succeed! I think if you trust people, people tend to repay that, there is a social contract? How would you qualify the projects success with the people who use it? Has their response surprised you? There is no social contract anymore, in our society there are too many tensions. This is why the project from the beginning worked as a catalyst for transformation as well as a monitor of social conicts. For me it is still ongoing research and you cannot draw a conclusion before ve years of use. Many of the people reacted with much respect and

love. It is their baby and a new village icon that stands for a brighter future. The project has been described as an urban experiment, do you feel that if this had been another standard library it would have worked? do you see this model being copied? No, the astonishing thing is the new typology of an outdoor-library. Another standard library could not do the same job. The model could be copied, maybe not in direct sense, because we have also copied it: The artists Clegg + Guttman invented an open public library already in the end of the 80s. They placed a singular bookshelf in the public realm, lled it with books and claimed it a library. We discovered the project when we did research after having the idea of an outdoor library. Of course we copied the parts that could support our project as other projects should take benet from ours and copy what they need! Was the project staffed by volunteers? I see this as an important part of the project, the discussions that take place, enabling strangers to come together in a social space, do you have any interesting anecdotes about how people used the project, the stage etc? Well, I think the most astonishing thing was in the beginning where people rst wished us good luck with the idea of a library in this totally abandoned eld. For the reading party we celebrated in the temporary installation. We had to import some poetry 'slammers' from Dresden, because there was no scene in Magdeburg. Now, in the nalised project there are various activities during the year: concerts, readings, end of the school year celebration of the primary school, etc. Young people use it informally, chilling, listening to Hip-Hop and reading literature.

I heard that the local community kept the project on past its deadline by actively funding it..... It seems that on a fundamental level it works as a gesture, what were the origins of the project-did it grow out of a discussion with the community? The birth of the project started with the temporary installation. People suddenly realized that there was a possibility to change something in their neighborhood. From then on, it became a social sculpture and people from the district took over the energy and the responsibility of the project. Many of the ideas, such as issues around the reuse of recycled material were their idea. This issue of public space I think is incredibly important. I am interested in this notion of 'bum-free seats' have you heard the expression? The idea of making spaces deliberately uncomfortable to deter homeless people, it's like this is an open space for everyone, except people who we don't want....I was wondering what your thoughts on this was? I have heard of and have seen these seats and benches also in East Germany.Though we had incredible discussions with the local authorities, this has never been an issue. Maybe because there are seemingly no homeless people in the district or if there are, they are rich and have claimed one of the numerous abandoned houses in Magdeburg. This is an advantage in shrinking cities, everyone has shelter! It seems sometimes that architects can be caught between the demands of developers and the needs of people, what are your thoughts on this?

You are certainly right, but in the district Salbke there is no market and no developers. It is a kind of absolute pure situation where only the demand and the engagements of the people counts. When I came across the project I was immediately impressed with the various solutions to certain sustainability and economic problems, with the use of the beer crates, etc. What do you perceive to be the main issues facing architects at the moment? I will draw just one focus, the social issue in the relation of the issue of sustainability: If we nd solutions for the social issue, we will be ready to live together again in more concentrated, higher density and therefore in a more sustainable way. How do you see libraries moving forward? In Britain we have severe funding cuts and libraries are threatened. I think what I found very interesting about the project was the notion of lending and borrowing books, in an age of internet and e-readers etc, the book seems quite resilient, almost a metaphor for certain forms of cultural value. I was wondering what your thoughts on this were? There are also severe funding cuts in Germany and in Magdeburg several libraries have closed. Again, the book is a utopian sign. It offers access to knowledge and education to the mostly poor neighborhood were the welfare state and the municipality has failed. What is the most important function of architecture? A variable concept of time and duration, a social tool, an instrument of critique and a utopian experiment.

If you were able to build a city like London from scratch, what would you keep? I like London as it is, tabula rasa was one of the biggest mistakes of the 20th century.