Literature Quarter @ Central Library, Edinburgh

2011

AMA were invited by the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) in January 2011 to look at the reorganisation of Central Library within its existing building, and its integration into the emerging context of the Literature Quarter. 

The existing Central Library must evolve to respond to a number of pressures for maintenance and repair, providing DDA and universal access, and creating a place fit for purpose in the current and future context of library design. The concept of the Literature Quarter was developed in response to Edinburgh’s status as UNESCO’s first City of Literature.

By combining a series of buildings together, opportunities arise to create a number of interlinked projects. Presently under-utilised buildings and spaces such as India Buildings, the Vaults, or the Music Library building, could be developed as part of this vision for a Literature Quarter, and the synergies between the projects - a major new hotel, and an events venue in the Vaults, as well as existing organisations such as the National Library for Scotland, could assist the delivery of a redevelopment of Central Library.