We like to return to every project a year after handover. Buildings rarely behave exactly as drawn, and the first year shows what works, what needs adjusting and what people have invented on their own. The Hill Library gave us more to learn than most.
The window became the room
We designed the long window as a quiet backdrop for reading. Instead it became the reason people come. Early in the morning, retired residents read the newspaper there; after school, it fills with teenagers doing homework with the valley at their shoulders.
The librarian now schedules events around the light. Poetry readings happen at dusk, when the valley turns blue and the reading lamps come on one by one.
People come for the books and stay for the window.
What we would change
Not everything was right. The alcoves closest to the entrance are noisier than we expected, and on winter afternoons the stair is darker than it should be. Both have simple fixes that are now underway.
A heavy felt curtain to soften the entrance alcoves
Two additional lamps set into the stair wall
More power sockets in the window seats, the most requested change
An extra bench outside for people waiting for the doors to open
Numbers that matter
Visitor numbers have tripled compared to the old library, but the more telling figure is time. The average visit now lasts more than ninety minutes. A building that people choose to stay in is the clearest measure of success we know.
The town has started to call it the living room. We could not have asked for a better name.
