NationStates Jolt Archive

Let's say that you're given one billion euros to build a memorial library, what would it look like?

What in architectural design or in content?

The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.

A building full of books.

I would build only one bookcase. A very, very, very tall bookcase.

I'd buy up the rights to as many great books as possible and host them online for free. :)

Kiryu-shi Memorial field (http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/ballpark/citifield_overview.jsp)

There would be a room full of all the books I've ever owned in a luxury suite.

A massive tower filled with supercomputers.

Well, what would I be putting into such a thing?

I'd make it a huge website with free access to the public.

I don't need a personality cult, thanks.

Well, what would I be putting into such a thing?

Whatever you want.

Statues of your own genitalia, should it please you sufficiently.

I'd buy up the rights to as many great books as possible and host them online for free. :)

I'd make it a huge website with free access to the public.

I don't need a personality cult, thanks.

My philanthropy is faster than your philanthropy. :p

My philanthropy is faster than your philanthropy. :p

Who said anything about "philanthropy"? It's an ego-trip; everyone who uses it will think "Soheran" and know that I was responsible.

It's just more subtle than, say, building a library shaped like an immense version of myself.

It's just more subtle than, say, building a library shaped like an immense version of myself.

I didn't even think of doing that.

That's what I'd do.

Whatever you want.

Statues of your own genitalia, should it please you sufficiently.

How...odd.

Anyhoo, the library would probably be in a Neoclassical style, very elegant, and something great too look at. I'd have great courtyards, and the interior would be very open plan.

All topped off with a grand dome.

My library would be built as a tower in the shape of a giant penis, and would contain nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.

There'd be an awful lotta bongs, I can tell you that.

My library would serve free punch and pie.

It would probably look like this

http://graphics.boston.com/news/packages/iraq/galleries/museum/04.jpg

I stole the money

It would be filled with very comfy chairs. Each chair would have a set of headphones built in, with which you could listen to any piece in the extensive music library while reading any book in the similarly extensive literary library. There would also be a giant chocolate fountain in the middle of the main room.

Once construction of my library was complete, I would move into it and never, ever leave. :)

It would be a nice Beaux-Arts (UC style, granite with a tile roof and copper trim) building with a great assortment of books and of course a computer lab. I bet for a billion, there could be a huge number of books. And a great computer lab.

G0atse

Pentagonal in shape, 2 or 3 stories high, books and computers full of pr0n inside.

My library would be built almost entirely underground. A series of hubs and tunnels bewteen them. By keeping it underground it's easier to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. Maybe even the tunnels could be lined with books.

Big? Filled with books? A chair? Scratch that, a comfy chair? A fridge full of foodthings? A large portrait of Mandy Patinkin as Che Geuverra?

My library would be built almost entirely underground. A series of hubs and tunnels bewteen them. By keeping it underground it's easier to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. Maybe even the tunnels could be lined with books.

Ooh, Hobbit!Library. I like it. :)

Ooh, Hobbit!Library. I like it. :)
I never thought of it that way. I was going for deeper but it's gotta have a few entrances and exits so why not give it a good ol' Lord of the Rings look.

Hey I just thought of something! Stick a small reactor several sublevels underneath it for a constant supply of power for uh...many years. Depending on what element and isotope is used.

It would have a fireplace in the center and one big, comfortable, puffy chair next to the fireplace. The lighting would be indirect, but as close to daylight as possible. Then there would be shelf after shelf filled with every book imaginable and highly trained personnel who would fetch me whatever book I wanted, whenever I wanted it. There would, of course, be a computer station equipped with the most up-to-date system possible, a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator, a small alcove for sleeping, a small bathroom. I would never leave.

Every book I've ever own, everything I've ever written would be hosted online and would be open to the public. I would use the rest of the money to make myself richer!

It would be in the shape of a giant couch.

One room of books with a gigantic mansion built around it to house the room. :)

a huge cosmic pyramid energised to instantly transmit the content of any book directly into the mind of the user in the manner of a beam of pink energy to the forehead
narrated by Stimpy
http://members.iinet.com.au/~coleman/stimpy.jpg

(sorry, i was thinking of an LSD experience i had on my thirtieth birthday...)

It'd look like huge pile of beautiful geometric vomit. It would look like a bunch of glass triangle bluidings randomly connected to eachother.

Think of sealand, only with less pr0n and more books, which are offered for free download.

It'd look like a huge phallus, but with blackjack, and hookers.

Let's say that you're given one billion euros to build a memorial library, what would it look like?

I would get a house with lovely warm rooms, soft carpets and comfy chairs as well as a couple of old-fashioned oak desks with those green reading lamps, high windows on one side facing a nice garden, and ceiling-high shelves with those ladders you can slide along them.

And then I would spend the rest of my life slowly gathering the books to fill the library, each hand-picked and of course read by myself. It would house books in all the languages I speak (only 3 at the moment, but I might want to learn more at some stage), and it would focus on quality international literature, as well as history, psychology, biology, geography and social sciences.

I'd buy a huge long row of terraced houses (4 stories high eg. Bouverie Road, Hackney, London). I'd then knock down as much of the separating walls as possible. The entry level would be filled full of computers and printers and everything needed to access e-media. Then the other three floors would be dedicated to books... all books... even the most drollest of books, even the most propaganderous of books... Oh, and I'd dig a basement and fill that with microfilms of all newspapers past and present after a raid on the British Library. The terraces would have gardens for outdoor viewing in good weather.

Mine would be located in the gap between the 3rd and 4th dimensions. Furthermore, it would have exactly 4,933,039 books, which would arrange themselves on the shelves via magnetism. There would be two members of staff, one a stereotypical evil librarian, the other MC Hammer. When leaving, all would have to walk through a large glass tank, which would release gunge if books had been returned late, and faeces if someone was attempting to leave without taking their books to the issue desk.

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/ARCH/340px-Welthauptstadt_Germania.jpg

I'd build this thing here... (Sorry, too good a chance to resist that joke.)

Certainly not Oxbridge Neo-classical wank. Sorry Nadkor, but there's only so many column fronted facades, pediments and metopes I can take.

Probably either a gratuitously Gothic building, or the sort of quaint, much altered builiding seen in Black Books. Only larger.

My library would be made mainly of glass and a steel frame. Glass cealing so natural light could come inside, and at night you could see the sky. A lot of light around, mainly in "isles" where there would be couches and tables for people to read. The rows of books would have less light so the "isles" look more interesting to be.

There would be a place for people to sleep, a place with computers for people to use freely, and maybe a sport place with facilities. There should also have a lan house inside.

With a billion Euros I could probably get the best of both worlds...

The library would be designed in traditional high gothic style (although, with modern technology used in the building, making the flying butresses more decorative than anything else). Think Washington National Cathedral.

The upper levels would be dedicated to a collection of books/papers/w/e. The lower levels would have computer labs and a set of servers providing web-access to the library's contents.

The librarian would sit up in the bell tower with a sniper rifle and shoot people who owed late fees.

Certainly not Oxbridge Neo-classical wank. Sorry Nadkor, but there's only so many column fronted facades, pediments and metopes I can take.

Probably either a gratuitously Gothic building, or the sort of quaint, much altered builiding seen in Black Books. Only larger.

Yea, what do you mean by Oxbridge?

I was thinking somewhere along these lines:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/Belfast_City_Hall_-_Carisenda.jpg
(Belfast City Hall)

I'd build some kind of library/ Bowling alley hybrid in a huge upside down five sided pyramid because the world needs more of them.

It'd probably be a lot like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Bodleian-library.jpg
http://www.unseenuniversity.demon.co.uk/pictures/library.jpghttp://www.unseenuniversity.demon.co.uk/pictures/librarian.jpg


Students would have acess to HEX.
"No feeding of the Books" signs would be posted, along with "the rules":
1. Silence.
2. Books must be returned no later than the date shown.
3. Do not meddle with the nature of causality.

The Librarian woulkd be an orangutang who could access L-Space, and Very Bad Things would happen to people who called him a monkey.

(I can't belive I'm the first here who thought of this one. WHOOT!)

A secret underground base with an ample supply of 'hench people'.