When the national library of France was built, it was an impressive feat of engineering and architecture. Like many buildings of the late 20th century, it used quite a bit of glass. In fact, as you can see, the majority of the facade is glass. Unfortunately, that made it into a huge hot greenhouse that started to damage the books. The thousands of giant wooden shutters that were put in to deflect the sunlight are a clumsy solution to a problem that could have been prevented.

It can be very tempting to make a web project look impressive to passersby without giving due consideration to how people will be using it in their daily lives. Read the rest of this article on Design Festival!





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