The book is conceived as a handbook for helping public libraries in setting up and start a makerspace. It reports the findings of the MAKERLAB project, a living-lab two-years research project funded by PICA Stichting. The publication is organised into three major section: Impact; Program; Space; plus additional information about the context of the research and the employed tools. The MAKERLAB project has been conducted in close collaboration between National Library, TU Delft, Hogeschool Rotterdam.

More than ever before, cities today are the frontrunners in social, economic, cultural innovations. They attract new inhabitants for they produce opportunities
for many. Especially large cities are in the focus of complex migration fluxes from (peripheral) national and international regions, 1 fostering diversity and cultural multiplicity and raising relevant management issues: social cohesion, spatial and environmental qualities, variable time-space geographies, sustainable economies
and ecologies. In the near future, these dynamics will increase the pressure on cities and territories. What new urban configurations emerge from these processes?

The public library holds a key position in the present geography of the urban public realm, as it emphasizes the centrality of self-directed culture in contemporary society by mirroring the processes of individual empowerment underpinned by technological changes. It transforms the public space in a place of collective action and individual participation, contributing to forming the urban commons in the contemporary splintered society. At present, visiting a library is an urban public act of collective participation / inclusion. The crucial condition for this is the paradigmatic transition from a passive knowledge-consumption model to an active knowledge-production model—by which libraries increasingly position “making” at the intersection of public culture and public realm, bringing performative spaces and creative
opportunities within the public sphere of all citizens. How do library buildings accommodate these public relationships, and in how far are they successful in doing it? The article proposes a theoretical underpinning framework for the development of the public library in the context of the contemporary socio-cultural conditions in order to position recent experiences in the Netherlands. The aim is to enlighten the current relationships between urban commons, making culture, and the architecture of the public library with an eye on future developments.

Public libraries want to contribute to an inclusive and innovative society and aim to enable their patrons to acquire the necessary 21st century skills. Dutch public libraries are therefore gradually adding more and more activities to their curriculum, teaching these different types of skills, such as ‘invention literacy’. They also often provide a ‘performative space’ (i.e. a makerspace) for their patrons. This means library spaces are no longer dominated by books, but rather reflect the current development in libraries’ core business, moving from collections to connections in order to serve their local communities. The KB, the National Library of The Netherlands, participated in the KIEM1 project Performative Spaces in Dutch Public Libraries. Stepping Stones of Inclusive Innovation, researching the development of performative spaces in libraries. This project, a collaboration with the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology, fits the KBs strategic interests in providing an innovative and socially aware library system. Important research questions included how public libraries create these so-called performative spaces for inventing and creating, what modifications are needed in terms of interior design and safety, and in terms of programmatic and spatial organization? As well as how do makerspaces connect to particular maker communities? The project results provided insight into spatial and design aspects of performative spaces, which helps public libraries, and ultimately its patrons, to benefit from this new development. This book, the Atlas, presents the results of the research projects with illustrations of the different types of makerspaces as well as providing state-of-the-art information about performative spaces, focusing on the spatial characteristics. It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with experts from Delft University of Technology and we hope and expect the KIEM project has sown the seeds for a sustainable collaboration on the subject of performative spaces in present and future library research. We see the Atlas as a joint starting point for a shared agenda on the performative library space of the future for librarians, designers, patrons and other stakeholders.