Culture and sociality, discovering the new Rijeka City library

Rijeka has a new modern city library, the “Gradska knjižnica Rijeka”, in a former industrial area redeveloped and transformed into an authentic cultural hub. Our reportage

An early autumn day, with temperatures that in 24 hours have dropped from a scorching 38°C to a more pleasant 18°C. Usually, in mid-September in Rijeka you can still breathe an intense scent of Mediterranean scrub, you can walk around in japanke (literally the “Japanese”, flip-flops), Bermuda shorts and a cotton T-shirt, and after work you can run along the Opatija seafront to preserve your tan. Instead I find a gray and wet city, which has taken those who left home this morning by surprise. Those who are stubbornly dressed the same as in the past days and try to hide their goosebumps mix with those who, scared of potential colds, are already bundled up as if it were late autumn.

A few meters from the train station, the plaque hanging to the right of the entrance arch to the former Benčić industrial area reminds us that, thanks to a European project, the city has had a new and futuristic library, the “Gradska knjižnica Rijeka”, for a few months now. From 1966 until recently, the central library of Rijeka was located in the “Palazzo Modello” - built in 1882 and designed by Viennese architects Fellner and Helmer - located along the “Korzo”, the wide pedestrian street that runs through the center.

The idea of ​​moving the library dates back to 2012. The intention was to find a larger space for the great collection of books and, at the same time, to redevelop the abandoned industrial complex: born in the 18th century as a sugar factory, then trasformed into a tobacco factory and finally home to the Rikard Benčić engine factory from 1945 to 1995, when it was closed.

As the director of Rijeka City Library Niko Cvjetković told me, today the library is a cultural hub. “In the various facilities of the industrial complex, an authentic artistic district was born, the ‘Art-kvart Benčić’. The library was built in what is called the T building, due to its shape, next to another H-shaped building which houses the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMSU), the City Museum and a short distance away the red brick building which is now the Children's House”.

After passing the arch, the walkway leading to the library crosses a large space dotted with flowerbeds, which overlooks the Children's House. Both spaces were created as part of a European project, promoted by the city of Rijeka in collaboration with local partners, "Revitalisation of the Benčić complex – Brick and T-buildings Description", within the operational program "Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020", for a total value of 12,182,693 Euros co-financed by the EU for 55%.

 

The red brick building, the “Children’s House”, which extends over a multi-storey area of 2,717 square meters – where children from 0 to 14 years of age can read, have fun, take part in workshops, watch films – was renovated based on a project by architect Saša Randić and opened in March 2021.

As I walk toward the library, I pass a young woman coming out of the House, with a child who is running toward the lawn. “Do you come here often?”, I ask her. “Whenever I can! He is insatiable”, she says, pointing to her son, who is about four years old, “and here we have everything. Inside he meets other children, reads and plays… and I can chat and relax with other parents, even outside sitting at these tables. When the weather is nice, certainly not today…”, replies the women smiling.

“Više od slova” (more than words) is the slogan that welcomes visitors at the entrance to the library, anticipating the invitation messages written on each step of the staircase leading to the reception: a space not only for reading but also for socializing, meeting and debating. What strikes you immediately is the brightness, due not only to glass walls and white furniture, but above all to the large windows with an open view and the very high ceilings that, together with the industrial-design columns and beams, recalls the origins of this building.

Historical roots and innovation are seamlessly intertwined, not only in the architecture, but also in the services offered on three of the four floors open to the public over a net extension of 4,530 square meters. First of all, on the ground floor, next to the meeting room and the newspaper reading area, the youth section called “Rasadnik” [plant nursery]. Niko Cvjetković explains that it was designed to be something more than just a “media library”“In fact, there is a recording room with some musical instruments, an audio editing studio, a cinema room”.

Young people I find sitting on the floor dedicated to scientific research, which even includes some “tihe sobe” [silent rooms] completely isolated with glass walls from the rest of the floor, to ensure maximum concentration. “Are you from Rijeka? Do you study here?”, I ask in a whisper to a girl who has just come out of one of these rooms. “Yes, I am from Rijeka, but I don’t study here, I am attending university in Italy. Here in Rijeka I attended Italian schools, therefore having already learned the language, it was easy for me…”. She is preparing her thesis, while visiting her family. “This summer, I almost wore out my shoes along the path between the library and the sea, where I usually go in the afternoon! Sometimes, however, I meet up with friends on the ground floor”.

Many young people perceive the library as a place to study and socialize. Over 100,000 entries in the first six months since its opening. A figure that, adds Cvjetković, “alone demonstrates how much citizens have embraced not only the library in its new concept and structure, but also the new location and the entire cultural district”. A concept that implies collaboration between all the entities present in this former industrial area, inter-acting, concludes the library director, “so that citizens perceive the Art-kvart as a single body”.

I take another elevator - also glass - to go down to the entrance hall. Alady is inserting books into the “knjigomat”, a sort of book ATM. She could also return them outside opening houres through an external “knjigomat”, open 24 hours a day. In the new Rijeka library, for the first time in Croatia, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been used, which automatically recognizes books by their labels and takes them on conveyor belts to the various floors of the library.

Through the glass walls I observe, enraptured, the complex transport mechanism, which has identified the book just delivered and, slowly, as if it were the suitcase of a tourist who has just got off the plane, accompanies it towards the final part of the journey. Which will resume the next time someone else requests the book.