Disegnare il futuro: verso l'open library

The article investigates the situation of the Danish libraries, starting with the political and cultural choices made at national level, deepening the Danish planning and design guidelines, and examining the library architectures built in the last decade as a result of those choices and these guidelines. The result is an innovative library model (the so-called “Four Spaces Model”): the library becomes a social condenser, an “open digital library” with extensive self-service opening hours (thanks to a careful design of spaces and services), integrating library services with citizen services, and establishing partnerships and alliances with other organizations and institutions. Useful practices emerge to draw a possible future for the public library, also in Italy.