Library Buildings around the World

and exhibit the 3 North Atlantic countries: Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland in Denmark. The building has an area of 3800 m2
and will include exhibition areas, conference rooms, restaurant, library and student housing.
The focal point of the competition has been to make House of the North Atlantic a strong architectural statement that expresses the
culture and identity of the 3 Nordic countries.
The building is made as a small assembly of separate houses of different shapes and heights. The houses are on pillars standing on an
organic landscape plateau of sitting areas, stairs, shelves and terraces. The ground floor is open and transparent making all the
public facilities visible from the harbour side. The houses have a clear reference to the black wooden buildings of the Nordic
countries and the landscape plateau is related to the dramatic landscapes of the North Atlantic islands. The materials are telling the
same story as the archi-tecture; black metal, concrete with stones from Greenland and driftwood from Iceland.
(http://www.worldarchitectnews)
Dissing + Weitling Architecture, Copenhagen – Denmark
http://www.dw.dk
Libraries:
University Humanities Library (Part of the Royal Library), Copenhagen – Denmark part one 1998,
part two 2008
Awards:
Prize: G-Mark Award for Good Design
University library and library archive rooms, Closed competition 1994: First prize, Floor area: 13,300 m2
Client: The Danish Ministry of Culture / The Danish Royal Library, Owner’s consultant: Byggedirektoratet / Danish Building
Directorate (phase one) and Moe & Brødsgaard (phase two), Architect and design/build consultant: DISSING+WEITLING
Landscape Architect: Sven Kierkegaard, Engineer: Rambøll, Book storage capacity: 73,000 metres of shelf space, Number of
readers’ desks: 500
The University Library - part of the Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen. With its 500 readers’ desks and some of the Danish Royal
Library’s most sophisticated archive rooms, Copenhagen University’s new Humanities Library is a vital hub of the university’s new
Amager campus. User based design. Throughout the planning and design process, architectural focus has been on creating the
optimum faculty library based on users’ needs. Dissing+Weitling – in co operation with a user group of Royal Library employees –
analysed functionality requirements and work flow. Optimum design solutions catering for the needs of both employees and students
were then designed on this basis. The result of this intensive planning and design process is a building characterised by flexibility,
airy openness and simple, clear definition. The three open floors have been laid out with incremental noise levels in mind – from easy
socialising in the lounge and café areas to group study areas and finally to the library reading rooms designated for “quiet” use
where students can concentrate completely on individual study. 73 km of cultural heritage safeguarded in climate controlled archive
rooms. In addition to its study and reading facilities the new faculty library building houses three large archive rooms for Royal
Library books and records. The first of these, erected as part of phase one of the project built in 1998, houses 45 km of book shelves.
Phase two includes a further two archive rooms with – between them – 28 additional km of shelving affording storage conditions
with optimum temperature and relative humidity C for particularly sensitive audiovisualcontrol, including one archive at 2
material. Award winning architecture. The opening of the new humanities library marks the completion of a long term project
started by the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1989. The project attracted international attention even at this early stage, and
Dissing+Weitling received the prestigious Japanese G mark Award for phase one of the project. With the inauguration of phase two
the Ministry of Culture completes its plans and fulfils its ambition to create a combined library and archive facility designed and
built to the highest architectural standard. (Dissing)
New Carlsberg Glyptotek, Research Library Expansion, Copenhagen – Denmark 1994
Awards:
Beautiful Building Award for Alterations and Renovation 1996 by the City of Copenhagen
Research Library and Canteen New construction and renovation. Area: 2,090 m2, Client: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Client Advisor: Byggedirektoretet, Engineer: Crone & Koch, Landscape Architect: Birgitte Fink
The collection at the Reseach Library of the New Glyptotek is an extension of Brewer Carl Jacobsen’s original personal library. The
collection includes primarily sculpture of Greek, Egyptian, Etruscan and Roman origin, as well as Danish and French art from the
19th century. The library is an important addition to the collection, and is open to Glyptotek employees and external scholars.
The new library is an addition within one of the original courtyards, in close proximity of the main library. Its basis are the
architectural principles and modules found in the original library, but with a modern approach. The new two storey room has
balconies and wooden bookcases, all completed with the same care and attention to details that is found in the original library.
The balconies are a cantilevered steel construction with a steel grate floor. The entire room is surfaced with wood: maple floors with
belinga patterned borders, arched maple ceilings with vaulted a milk white acrylic skylight, that gives a calm, diffused light to the
room. Bookcases with glass sliding doors are also made of maple. The room is furnished with a counter and three square standing
height tables with steel pedestal bases and belinga tops with inlayed leather. (Dissing)
EFFEKT, Copenhagen – Denmark
http://www.effekt.dk
Libraries:
Estonia Academy of Arts (Library), Tallinn – Estonia – 1. prize, competition 2011
collaboration with SEA, Copenhagen – Denmark (http://www.s-e-a.dk)
Jury Report: The Jury voted Art Plaza as the winner of the competition because it is by far the best proposal when it comes
to architectural concept, outer qualities and inner life. The prject is stunningly simple and at the same time fascinatingly
complex. The project has potential of becoming an international masterpiece, the beckon of Estonia, attracting people from
all over the world to see the art academy of the future – a calm sculpute in the roar of downtown Tallin. (EFFEKT)
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