De uitvinding van de Leeszaal

• About a meeting place for language, literature, imagination and participation
• Detailed description of a bottom-up initiative in a neighbourhood in Rotterdam

Authors: Maurice Specht, Joke van der Zwaard
Design: Karin ter Laak

2015, trancityˣvaliz | supported by Stichting Atelier Rochussen, Stichting Solidaridam, Stichting Doen, Municipality of Rotterdam | paperback| 224 pp | 23 x 17 cm (h x w) | Dutch | ISBN 978-90-78088-96-7

Table of contents (pdf)
Introduction (pdf)

After the library was closed in the Rotterdam-based neighbourhood ‘Oude Westen’, the residents of the neighbourhood established ‘Leeszaal Rotterdam West’ [Reading Room Rotterdam West]. The invention of the reading room started by asking questions such as: What does your ideal reading room look like? And what could you personally contribute to this? Shortly after asking these kind of questions, a location was found and furnished to function as a beautiful public meeting place. Here, people focus on language, literature, imagination and participation and the reading room runs on approximately ninety volunteers. De uitvinding van de Leeszaal describes the internal structure of the reading room. The creators discuss how it is organized, how it functions as a public space, as a place for work and education, and as a place to exchange culture.

• bottom-up
• public domain
• trancityˣvaliz 
• architecture
• do-it-yourself
• collaboration