The library, which opened in December 2014, mainly stores publications on the problems of contemporary art - in accordance with the specialization of Garage itself. However, the architectural section was originally planned there, and, in addition to books, magazines also appeared there: a subscription was made to Domus, Abitare, Mark, Casabella, Volume, Icon, Architectural Review, Project Russia, SPEECH:, there is also an archive of these periodicals.
The development of this thematic part reached a new level when the Russian Avant-garde Foundation handed over to the Garage library its entire book collection - significant in volume and diverse in content. In addition to the publications of the fund itself, primarily the works of S. O. Khan-Magomedov, this collection also includes unique books - the architectural treatises of Vitruvius and Serlio published in Italy of the 16th century, the first editions of the works of Eugene Viollet-le-Duc (including his Russian Art of 1877), books from personal libraries And. IN. Zholtovsky and A. V. Shchusev.
A significant part of the library's architectural section is made up of Soviet publications, including those dedicated to competitions for the projects of the Palace of Soviets and communal houses, as well as the magazines Architecture of the USSR, Soviet Architecture, Construction of Moscow and many others. But the above is only a small part of the collection with a very wide range of topics: there are fundamental monographs about Russian architects of the New Time - both the 1950s and later, and publications of the Strelka Institute.
It is important to note that the library located in the Garage Education Center (it is located in Gorky Park next to the Shigeru Bana exhibition pavilion) is open to all comers and is focused on the convenience of the visitor: this is a reading room where most of the books are included in the open access fund, and in order to get a library card, a passport is enough.
Now the collection is replenished with foreign publications about the architecture of the XX - XXI centuries. Among those already acquired -
Project Japan, a large-scale study by Rem Koolhaas and Hans-Ulrich Obrist on metabolic architects, Architecture in Uniform is a catalog of the eponymous exhibition on architecture during World War II curated by Jean-Louis Cohen, and his history of modern architecture, covering all regions of the planet: "The future of architecture since 1889". Also in the library you can find books about the post-war California program Case Study Houses and about the Bauhaus, about the history of regional planning in the Netherlands and the "garden suburbs".
The library exists as a subdivision of the scientific department of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art; the department is headed by art historian Sasha Obukhova.
"Garage" is closely connected with architecture as an institution: thanks to it, the Bakhmetyevsky garage of KM was restored and put into "public circulation". Melnikov, the Shigeru Bana pavilion appeared in Gorky Park, and this year the former building of the restaurant "Four Seasons" of the 1960s, adapted by Rem Koolhaas and OMA for exhibition needs, will open there. The popularization of architecture through its qualitative "physical" manifestations is now logically continued by the activities of the library, designed - thanks to the diversity of the collection - for both amateurs and professionals.
