Kunskapens rum - en studie av Orkanenbiblioteket
RumslighetRumBiblioteksbyggnadKunskapKunskapsproduktionLärandeDocumentationInformationLibrary scienceArchivisticsArkiv- och bibliotekskunskapDokumentationSocial Sciences
The aim of this master´s thesis is to explore how a library through it´s spatial distribution expresses, and is an expression for, a view of knowledge. This is done by an analysis of the Orkanen library at Malmö Högskola. Questions posed in this study are: What view of knowledge is mediated through the spatial system and in the shelving of books? What view of learning is expressed in the spatial distribution of functions and artefacts?The theoretical framework of this thesis has two fundamental features. One, which focuses on theories of social space, a part that is mainly influenced by the theories of space syntax. The second feature discusses library, knowledge and the library building. The analysis consists of two parts, the distribution of space and the distribution in space. From these two analytic dimensions an interpretation of the space is performed with a hermeneutic methodology inspired by Paul Ricoeur. This methodology is based on the assumption that a text, or as in this case a building, in itself without the presence of an author represents ideas about the world. And these ideas can be analyzed by a study of the building. The material that is analyzed is the spaces of library building as such and the spatiality created by functions and artefacts in the library.The study shows that the distribution of the spatial system, the first level of the analysis, manifests knowledge as complex and non-hierarchical. In this the knowledge is characterized as a flat structure where different fields of knowledge is connected to each other in many different ways. Simultaneously with this post-modern structure an other modernistic one is revealed, manifested by the spatial dimension of the classification of the books in the library.