Sustainable Design Solutions for Rare Book Exhibitions
As libraries increasingly prioritize sustainable practices, rare books exhibitions offer a unique opportunity to implement sustainable design solutions. This paper aims to present our solutions for the exhibition and storage of rare books, with a focus on promoting sustainable, future-oriented practices.
The approach presented involves the use of custom preservation enclosures crafted from a combination of FSC recycled and archival-quality materials. These enclosures are based on a traditional design that incorporates advancements in enclosure components and assembly techniques, ensuring their effective integration into sustainable exhibition contexts.
By adopting these specially designed enclosures, we minimize material usage and reduce waste, while providing a chemically stable and safe environment for rare books during exhibitions and storage. The outer design of enclosures showcases minimalist aesthetics, prioritizing functionality and simplicity. However, the interior of the enclosures features slightly more decoration, incorporating both inbuilt and free-standing exhibition components tailored to individual heritage items. These free-standing components are not only durable and stable, but also reusable for future exhibitions.
The proposed enclosure design takes into account the economic, environmental and preservation aspects of rare book exhibitions, while also addressing the cultural needs of library users and the general public.
Gabriela Aleksić, National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia
Damjan Kopričanec, National and University Library in Zagreb, Croatia