On their first day at the school, students are read Imagine a Day, a picture book by Sarah Thomson.
A quote from the last page reads:
“Imagine a day when a book swings open on silent hinges and a place you’ve never seen before welcomes you home.”
With it, an image of a library where books become doorways to other worlds, bookshelves become balconies and small things become big things in a space of complexity and delight.
We were also inspired by an imaginary place called the “cemetery for forgotten books” in The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon.
“A labyrinth of passageways and crammed bookshelves rose from base to pinnacle like a beehive, woven with tunnels, steps, platforms, and bridges that presaged an immense library of seemingly impossible geometry”.
The project combines the tenderness of the former with the excitement of the latter.