Library Buildings around the World

which three finalists were chosen: Zaha Hadid, Foreign Office Architects (FOA), and Perrault.
Ultimately, the commission was awarded to Perrault for his scheme’s sensitivity to landscape. According to the architect, his
brief was “to expand urban activities into the campus.” His solution was to rebuild the site’s original topography, a hill with
a slope; introduce the new building into the “constructed” hillside; then cover the building with a park. The result is both
heroic and naturalistic, depending on the viewer’s perspective.
Remarkably, little changed from Perrault’s original program. Crucial to his realization was the decision to bifurcate the
concrete-framed structure, dividing it into seemingly cloned halves by an immense rift, or “valley”—a strong assertion of
contemporary intervention into the landscape. Ramped from its intersection with the street, this passage, lined with granite
pavers, descends into the sliced reconstructed hillside, allowing access to the buildings along its route. It then terminates at a
grand stairway that not only climbs up into the campus at the opposite end but serves as an informal seating area or, as
Perrault envisioned, an open-air amphitheater. Intended to be a link to the community and social space for students and
visitors, this walkway maintains a controlled progression of height to width that points downward to the interior activities,
and upward to the older buildings on the hills above.
Insulated glazed walls, supported by a polished, stainless-steel-clad aluminum framing system notable for its perpendicular
vertical fins, provide light to the lowest interior levels and animate both indoor and oudoor spaces with human activity.
Intermittent doorways, signified by bold graphic numerals, provide the simplest of alterations to the otherwise continuous
curtain wall.
Surmounting the binary structure, a green roof partially conceals the large building footprints. At the outset, Perrault
intended to plant trees in this overhead park, but the shallow depth of the soil would only permit grass and shrubs.
Nonetheless, the constructed roofscape produces a natural effect with a stone path that meanders among plantings, artfully
introduced mechanical elements (read chimneys), and stairs. It is difficult to understand if the park existed on the hillside, or
if the hillside is entirely new. Indeed, the passageway can disappear from view, depending on where one stands on either side
of the building, leaving only greenery merged with the campus landscape.
Perrault, a proponent of below-grade structures—with built projects like the French National Library in Paris and
Velodrome and Olympic swimming pool in Berlin under his belt—feels there should be more research on the use of the
earth, or landscape, as a viable building material like concrete or steel. “Usually nature is around the architecture,” he says,
adding that he and fellow architects should be “thinking about another kind of relationship with nature and soil.”
Within this trompe l’oeil–like setting, one will find a battery of much-needed spaces—enough to constitute “a small city,”
notes Yoonhie Lee, associate professor of the university’s department of architecture, and a member of the original
competition committee instrumental in the center’s interior programming. No single programmatic element dominates,
though the building tends to aggregate the noisier, more social activities on the lowest level, four levels beneath the roof. Like
a commercial district, this level, B-4, contains a twinned-screen art cinema, coffee houses, a gymnasium, restaurant, theater,
art exhibition space, commercial banks, and retail outlets.
The higher you ascend, the quieter it gets, because, explains Lee, while classes are held here, one of the center’s most
important functions is to provide places for study. Formal, monitored librarylike spaces, with reserved carrels and desks,
alternate with informal couches interspersed throughout, where students talk in small groups, review lessons, or simply
socialize. A large, open staircase links upper and lower levels adjacent to the glazed curtain wall and seems to attract more
student traffic on inclement days than the “valley” outside, which can seem daunting. While gravity-based drainage
removes heavy monsoon rain, snowfall on the outer passage must be cleared by hand.
Of course, one benefit of building into a hillside is energy conservation. According to university sources, the thermal mass of
the green roof and side walls sheltered by existing topography has resulted in a passive protection system that saves up to 25
percent of total energy costs as compared to conventional construction. Perrault also used a concrete core activation system,
(aka in-floor HVAC made of piped heating and cooling under floor slabs) along with a “thermal labyrinth” system that
optimizes air flow in the interstices between retaining walls and other structural elements to cool ambient air. And while the
building’s interior could have been dark and dingy, Perrault and his collaborators inserted light wells down through to the
lowest inhabited levels, a strategy augmented by the glazing.
In terms of budget, the simple system and material choices, such as exposed-concrete columns, helped to deliver the building
on time and within the financial strictures of the university. Even fireproofing, often prohibitive in such large open spaces,
doubled as decorative elements in the otherwise muted interiors.
Clearly, Ewha Womans University took a bold step specifying a scheme that goes not up, but down. No less dramatic or
memorable than the towers dotting the Asian landscape, the campus center makes a strong statement of the institution’s
commitment to the future, to its heritage, to its place in the environment, and to its students.
Originally published in our November 2008 issue. (http://archrecord.construction.com)
Atelier du Pont (Anne Cécile Comar, Philippe Croisier, Stéphane Pertusier), Paris - France
http://www.atelierdupont.fr
Libraries :
Bibliothèque municipale, Résidence Lucien Rose, Rennes – France 2004 – 2009
900 m², 1.300.000 €
Quant à la bibliothèque Lucien Rose, avec sa façade sud-ouest se déployant en escaliers, elle mime le dénivelé du terrain (dix mètres)
qui sépare l’entrée du quartier de la grille d’accès au Parc du Thabor, pour une pente moyenne de 4%. "Le site a été entièrement
remodelé", précise d’ailleurs Stéphane Pertusier. Cet écho qu’offre le bâtiment à la topographie du site n’est pas uniquement
formel : La bibliothèque Lucien Rose "s’enchâsse progressivement dans le sol", précise Philippe Croisier. Semblant prolonger le sol
et ses sursauts - l’équipement offre un écho aux murs de soutènement parcourant le site - la bibliothèque Lucien Rose se fond dans
son paysage. Pour autant, tout sobre et intégré qu’il soit au jardin botanique du Thabor, le quartier Lucien Rose ne reste-t-il pas, en
vertu même de sa position d’appendice du parc, une enclave ? En tout cas, s’il est un témoin de la mixité sociale clamée par les
acteurs du projet, c’est la bibliothèque : "Nous ressentons la mixité au quotidien", affirme à cet égard la responsable de l’équipement.
Point de départ du projet, la bibliothèque Lucien Rose serait promise à en devenir, aussi, le point d’orgue. L’organisation intérieure
de l’équipement traduit cette volonté. Eclairée par cinq failles zénithales qui confèrent à l’espace enterré une clarté inattendue, la
bibliothèque se déploie sur deux niveaux. Rayonnages, espace de consultation, alcôve consacrée à la petite enfance et bureau du
personnel animent le deuxième niveau du bâtiment alors que le premier niveau est consacré à des projections. Fruit d’une suggestion
des architectes, cet espace de rencontre inédit fait d’ores et déjà l’objet d’une programmation originale : le premier événement
organisé au sein de la bibliothèque Lucien Rose est un concert dessiné. Emmanuelle Borne ( http://www.cyberarchi.com )
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