LiberateLibri

Desc<x>ription and analysis of the context (if you love books let them free)

The idea of creating a large open and shareable library is the basis of this proposal. It comes from the so called “bookcrossing” which is very popular in the USA. It is very simple :you can leave a book anywhere, on a bench, on the train or bus, wherever it can be seen and taken, and after reading you can write your review on the website (http://www.bookcrossing.com/).
A community of book lovers meet virtually on the Internet to donate and / or receive books, in turn, given and / or received as many times as there are new readers and donors. The book begins its journey, as well, whose steps are related to the movement of those who find , read , and then leave it back to the adventure of a new player.
"Realease Books" has got the same purpose: sharing books, completely free, as a fundamental assumption.
Believing that even” through small things you can transform the cities" as Renzo Piano says, I thought of turning a simple skip for recycling paper into a trading / sharing place for released books.
The skip for paper, in fact, is easily recognizable and manageable by the municipal utilities. Having the same shape, it can be emptied, removed (for maintenance) and moved to any other place by the garbage truck.
There, inside the box protected from the rain, the books can be deposited "free." put on a couple of shelves, giving this way, the start to an” adventure” for the books left, for their owners and for the new readers.

Strategy and design solution (through small things you can transform the cities)
A waste skip, one of those traditionally used for the separate collection of paper, has been re-designed with some distinctive features: it contains, for example, two shelves for the “liberated” books". The two front doors are openable on both sides and magnet lockable.
The skip has the same standard and traditional junctions. This allows periodic withdrawals for cleaning, renovation or maintenance by the garbage truck.
Its organization can be arranged either by the local municipality, or by an inter-municipal network which is certainly possible in the future.
The project will involve, a municipality whose web site should devote a page to the disclosure of the purpose of the activity, and enable the exchange of logistic information as well.
From the same site it will be possible to download the flyer to be inserted in the first page of the book, with the following message:"This book has been set free for a new reader : you can take it, read it, and re-deliver it”
I am planning to have the prototype of a "Realease Books"skip made by the end of June ; afterwards, a major city has been asked to put the project on trial in July and to take care of a multimedia presentation, too.
The prototype, then, could be exposed at the XIII Biennale of Architecture along with a short film about the project.

Concept Art (the wizard facebook)
The logo of the project will be artistically created in rusted iron, glazed in coloured backgrounds and welded to one of the skip doors .
In Vallée des Merveilles( France) which is part of the Mercantour Massif, more than 40,000 petroglyphs, dating mostly from the Bronze Age, have been found. One of them, called "Le Sorcier" (The Wizard), has inspired my own personal representation of facebook. Even the skip, as you can see, reminds to the same profile with two doors which are openable on both sides, the front and the back, suggesting two different visual interpretations (front / mirror).

Information and references for this report come from the following websites:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/BookCrossing
to which one can refer for further details on bookcrossing.