House of Wisdom | Sharjah Digital Library | Foster + Partners

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 2018 – 2021

Located on the Sharjah International Airport Road, ten kilometres from the city centre, the two-storey building embodies a sense of clarity and lightness, with a large floating roof cantilevering on all sides of a transparent rectilinear volume.

The 15-metre-wide overhang shades the façades throughout most of the day, while fixed aluminium screens with differing densities filter the low sun in the evenings. Movable bamboo screens at low level are deployed by the building users, to provide privacy or to control glare. When not in use the bamboo screens are left open, preserving the visual connections with the landscaped gardens.

Visitors enter the building from its western edge into a double-height reception hub with a central courtyard that brings light to the interior spaces. This densely planted green area creates a comfortable outdoor environment for social events or quiet contemplation. The ground floor contains large spaces for exhibitions, a café alongside a children’s educational space, and the archive and a reading area with facilities such as an Espresso Book Machine that prints and binds books on-demand.

The floating roof is supported by four cores that also contain all the back-of-house and service spaces, creating a large column-free floorplate. The two cores closest to the entrance contain large sculptural staircases that guide people up to the mezzanine floor. The upper floor hosts a series of pod spaces suspended above the central courtyard, which offer both quiet and collaborative spaces, exhibition areas and reading lounges including a prayer room and a women-only area. Throughout the building, there is an emphasis on establishing and retaining a connection with the outside, looking onto the gardens surrounding the building.
The landscape is divided into two sections – a knowledge garden and children’s playground to the south, which has several native species and a water feature, alongside a more formal, geometrically arranged garden to the north containing The Scroll – a new piece of public art by British sculptor Gerry Judah that is a contemporary interpretation of the ancient Arabic scrolls as a single, spiralling sculpture that loops towards the sky.

“The House of Wisdom in Sharjah is a forward- looking conception of what a library should be in the 21st century – embracing a digital future while playing a crucial role as a community hub for learning, underpinned by innovation and technology.

The straight, minimalist lines of the building complement the dunes of the desert, set within a lush landscape. The House of Wisdom is set to be an oasis for the local community, led by research and innovation, at the heart of a new cultural district.”

Gerard Evenden
Head of Studio, Foster + Partners

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Designing a unique omnichannel destination experience
House of Wisdom is a leading cultural destination dedicated to learning, knowledge, and technology that marks the UNESCO World Book Capital year for The Emirate of Sharjah.
Shurooq, the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, engaged with Injazat, an industry recognized market leader in the GCC region for digital transformation, cloud and cyber security, as the end-to-end technology partner to transform their vision into reality. Injazat then turned to Alkemy and DGI to design, create and implement an engaging set of “phygital” experiences integrating physical spaces and objects with digital interfaces and solutions.
Together, we set out to reimagine the traditional library for the 21st century. How could we turn the cultural institution, traditionally seen as a repository of physical books, into a holistic and seamless “phygital” experience?

Phygital experience design to reimagine the library for the digital age
The answer is an integrated, omnichannel phygital experience powered by technology and innovation.
A cross-disciplinary team to create a smooth integrated overall experience for House of Wisdom visitors, starting from the creation of customer archetypes that later served as a foundation for the rest of the design.
The pillars of the House of Wisdom customer Journey are rooted in the design strategy. The same vision, concept, and experience was then consistently applied across all touchpoints.

Spatial experience and interiors

For the spatial experience, the library was divided to experiential and functional zones: discover, focus, experiment, and play. Key moments of interaction and experiences were defined for visitors in each area.
At the discovery zone, for example, there are interactive stations, where visitors can scan books and objects to learn more about them. For the experiment zone, we created a Fab Lab equipped with 3d printers, laser cutters and a touch wall for visitors to interact remotely with other fab labs in the world.
The interior design of the Fab Lab, Kids Area, exhibition area and the gift shop was done from concept to the smallest details.

A human-centered Digital Experience across all touchpoints
The digital experience at House of Wisdom integrates seamlessly with the physical, bringing the library to life. The visitors can use and interact with all touchpoints of the library directly through their smart phones.
The House of Wisdom app allows the visitors to access all of the content and all the services and experiences of the library directly and seamlessly. In addition, there are smart totems across the buildingthat allow for advanced book searches, bookings, order placements and additional information through touchless, direct scans with QR codes.
All the UX/UI of the touchpoints (website, mobile app, digital screens) are designed to meet the needs of the customer archetypes’, with the principles of human-centered design applied across the board. The design is mobile-first, with the same functionalities for all touchpoints to guarantee a uniform experience.

Seamless, scalable technology to power the experience
A typical destination hosts an array of technological systems – e.g. CCTV, building management, and parking – all running separately. House of Wisdom, instead, has one flexible, scalable solution that governs the entire visitor experience. One digital platform connects all the various services. Guests can book and pay for parking, borrow, and return books they can reserve a work pod, and control the lighting and aircon, all from the same app.
The intuitive, easy-to-use UI design hides an immense complexity of technology.

Communication strategy and content - The storytelling of the 21st century
Just like the books the library hosts, the entire library itself, tells a story. The storytelling of House of Wisdom was planned, designed, and produced to engage visitors in the dialogue and connect with them. The dialogue continues throughout the entire customer journey, starting before the visit, and continues in the library’s digital channels after the visit, be it the website or social media.


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About House of Wisdom

Located in Sharjah, UAE, House of Wisdom is a digital library and a cultural destination spanning 1,2 hectares and over 100.000 physical and 200.000 digital books. In addition to the library, House of Wisdomfeatures discussion halls, reading lounges, exhibition spaces, a children’s educational area, suspended pod spaces above the central courtyard for quiet reading, a cafe and a restaurant.
There’s also a “book espresso machine” that prints and binds books on demand. Outside, in the landscaped gardens, visitors will find The Scroll, a spiraling, modern sculpture designed by British sculptor Gerry Judah inspired by Arabic scrolls.

Design Group Italia