Narrative:
The primary way to make an adaptable building is to embed flexibility of use in the design. The library is a large open space, with ample ceiling height, the shelves are on castors, the furniture is loose; the room can easily accommodate changes in the library’s needs for other events and programs on campus. Adjacent spaces are open to the library, but acoustically separated; these spaces could easily take on other functions in support of the library program.
The steel structure means that walls are independent of interior partitions and column spacing is maximized, giving great flexibility to future generations to relocate walls and configure new spaces. Classrooms can be enlarged; offices in the library replaced with program rooms, or vice versa.
While there is great flexibility of use in the design without any alteration of fixed building elements, these elements are also easy to move in an affordable manner. The structural steel frame uses buckling restrained braced frames, along with innovative structural fuses that yield and absorb seismic forces. This allows the structure and building to weather all but the largest earthquakes without deforming the BRBFs, and the fuses can be easily and inexpensively replaced.
Long Life, Loose Fit
source: http://www.aiatopten.org