Located in the heart of Cayuga, a small town on the Grand River in Ontario, the Haldimand Library + Heritage Centre opened in early August this year. It brings together a local library branch with a museum and genealogy centre, and was designed by TCA | Thier + Curran Architects. According to the architects, the project was delivered at about half the cost per square foot of other libraries?”a significant success.?
Photo Courtesy of TCA | Thier + Curran Architects
?The library in a small town is one of the few opportunities for architecture and culture to touch the daily lives of residents, so it is critically important for it to inspire and engage, to become the community?s living room and a hub of community life,? say the architects. At the same time, they note, ?Small towns tend to be more conservative, myopic, afraid of risks and hesitant to embrace new ideas. Building Committees are usually made up of first time clients who are particularly worried about criticism and tend towards ?safe? decisions, and often have trouble looking past personal choices and envisioning themselves into the shoes of the users instead. ?
Photo Courtesy of TCA | Thier + Curran Architects
The tight budget was also a challenge. ?It is hard enough to create great architecture with a generous budget, but it is far, far more difficult to tease a good building out of a very modest budget. One has to be particularly creative and nimble to magically turn inexpensive materials and systems into i...