The Women's Library
London
Wright & Wright Architects

A former laundry serves to house an archive of women’s history

© Peter Cook / VIEW

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

This library has its roots in the Suffrage movement and houses the largest collection of books and objects related to women’s history in England. The new building is on the site of a derelict Victorian washhouse and laundry in Old Castle Street. The resulting building makes a positive and sensitive contribution to its urban context, is intellectually accessible, provides secure and environmentally appropriate stores for the collection, is physically accessible and utilizes sustainable elements in the design. It consists of an exhibition hall, seminar room, educational facilities, reading room, archives, café, offices, friends' room, and garden.

The library is surrounded by a disparate group of buildings. In response it steps back horizontally and vertically, behind the retained façade as it rises on the east, with a copper clad link between the wash house wall and the main body of the building. To the north a small garden has been created. The west façade will front a courtyard linking the building to the university’s new law building, being designed by the same architect.

The structure is reinforced concrete frame clad internally and externally in brick. The very stringent environmental conditions required in a museum and archive have been met using passive means rather than air conditioning. The estimated energy costs for the archives are 20 percent of those for a conventional system. The palette of materials is restricted to brick, stone, oak, steel, and glass.

Formal name of Project:
The Women's Library

Location:
London

Gross square footage:
21,500 sq ft

Total construction cost:
$7.6 million

Owner:
London Metropolitan University

Architect:
Wright & Wright Architects
89-91 Bayham Street
London NW1 0AG UK
t: 0044 (20) 7428 9393
f: 0044 (20) 7428 9394