The area where the Berkeley Library was eventually built was once a copse of trees, facing into College into the area known as Fellows’ Gardens – now, Fellows’ Square.
Continue reading “#5 When All This Was Fields”#5 When All This Was Fields
#4 Sphere Within Sphere
…or to use the Italian, Sfera con Sfera.
Art has always played a large role in the Berkeley Library – we’ll explore this in depth in further posts, and for some, the Berkeley itself is a sculpture of sorts. But one of the most recognisable features of the Berkeley – indeed, of Trinity – isn’t an original feature of the Library.
#3 What Might Have Been 1
The appeal for funds for the new library was wide-ranging, and in the great tradition of universities looking for funds, Trinity turned towards its alumni with 11,000 copies of the pamphlet Extension of the College Library: An appeal to our graduates printed and sent to graduates in 1957.
The main image above shows a detail from that booklet, subtitled “How the new building might look”. It’s a very different realisation of what would be appropriate for the space that eventually housed the Berkeley – but it’s easy to see why, nestled between the Old Library and the Museum Building, this might be thought the appropriate tack to take.
#2 “One Of Five Great Libraries”
In 1958, the fundraising campaign to start raising the capital necessary to construct a new library began in earnest, with a public launch on 15 July in the Long Room. This led to the release of the promotional film, Building for Books, in theatres. It’s not often a film about libraries makes it to the cinema, but this managed it.
Continue reading “#2 “One Of Five Great Libraries””
#1: A “Brutalist Gem”
“In commissioning this brutalist gem in the 1960s, the elders of Trinity College displayed remarkable bravery and vision.”
Wallpaper* City Guide: Dublin.
So, why is the Berkeley brutalist? Is it really so harsh – looking at the buildings that surrounded it on its construction it was very clearly different, but brutal?