A new home for Ghent's city library
As from 10 March Ghent's bookworms can start borrowing their favourite reads from the brand new city library at the Krook. Space has also been set aside for all kinds of other multimedia, information, games, lifestyle,…
Not only can you go there to read and study - of course - it's also a place to meet others, have a drink, take in some culture, and even attend workshops, visit installations, set to work yourself with innovations and new technologies such as 3D printing and virtual reality … Apparently you can even get your books delivered by drone! Although you should perhaps take that one with a pinch of salt for the time being. The youth section is also getting a complete makeover.
De Krook is the name given to the ambitious city renovation project, of which the library is part. The neighbourhood is undergoing a revival now that an attractive passage has been created to the city centre, featuring new squares, quays, and bridges for pedestrians and bicycles. Work on the site has taken almost six years.
It took around six weeks to transfer all 600,000 books from their previous home to their new dwelling. Ghent's city council came up with a fun and original idea to kick off the project. On 26 January volunteers formed a human chain along the 250 metre-long trajectory between the 'old' library Zuid on the Woodrow Wilsonplein and the new library De Krook across the water on Lammerstraat. That moment, when all helping hands held a book, was caught on camera. The removal chain then quickly got back to work.