Aarhus as a city of knowledge

With the city council’s decisions in 2003 and 2004 concerning the realisation and siting of MEDIASPACE, the City of Aarhus has staked emphatically on Aarhus as a city of knowledge. The city council decision concerning the realisation of MEDIASPACE is based partly on the business plan of action called “Growth II” and partly on a line of preceding analyses and studies which have altogether indicated the need for a new main library.

The media has changed

The current main library of Aarhus has been undersized for many years in proportion to the current level of activity. When it was built in 1934 books were the vital media. Since then the media has changed considerably, loans and the number of printed publications have increased significantly, and the time spent on films, TV and multimedia has increased drastically.

Learning and being

The citizens’ need for lifelong learning in the knowledge society poses new demands to the building. Besides constituting a library where various media can be borrowed the building must also support learning and experience. MEDIASPACE must provide its users with opportunities for absorption and concentration as well as interaction and sharing of knowledge. Space for new types of media and spaces where citizens can meet, study and experience events become a necessity. These demands cannot be met by the current physical setting.

With the human being as key factor

It is a condition of the present day that a vigorously expanding development within media and information technology will occur. Therefore MEDIASPACE must be built with the future in mind. The building must comprise an inherent flexibility towards technology, media and forms of culture.

One must understand and acknowledge that the technologies of the future are known at best only a few years before they are marketed. Therefore it is not technology but the human being itself which is the constant when it comes to the development of the building.