Greenhill Community Library

Year | 2016

Location | Greenhill Community Library, Greenhill, Sheffield

Clients | Friends of Greenhill Library 

Like many local libraries in the UK, Greenhill Community Library has recently faced the threat of closure. The Friends of Greenhill Library (FROGL), an enthusiastic group of volunteers, have successfully operated the library for the past two years. The project seeks to provide a vision for the future and expand on the library’s ambition to become a community hub.

The role of the live project team has been to foster relationships with potential stakeholders, to increase public awareness of the library’s ambition, to improve library image through rebranding and to offer a variety of design solutions from immediate actions to a long term vision.

The success of the public areas of the library is reflected from user feedback. Therefore this live project identifies areas for potential development of community spaces and focusses on the reconfiguration of ancillary spaces in the back of house to provide vital support to the library as the heart of the community.

Our approach has made use of participatory methods to collect the opinions and ambition of library users through our ‘Open Book’. While our Pop Up Cinema changed the perception of underutilised space through temporary use. This event fostered relationships between the library volunteers and members of the local community, tested the introduction of a permanent cinema club and increased public awareness of the library’s ambition to become a community hub.

This live project has provided the Friends of Greenhill Library with a new image and greater presence within the community as well as tools to take the project forward and gain support from further organisations including a pop up cinema guide, a photographic survey and a phased vision document.