Library Buildings around the World

Hungary
Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft., Budapest – Hungary
Libraries:
Regional Library and Knowledge Center, Pécs – Hungary 2010
Project Area: 13,180 sqm
Pécs, a multicultural city with a rich history, was the European Capital of Culture in 2010. For the location of the new library a
remote, run down, undeveloped plot was chosen. This meant the new building did not have the constraint or possibility to directly
match other buildings. During the design process, I aimed to dynamically synthesize the dualities which appear in many ways. In the
building a “beehive” represents the ideological center and refers to permanence. This is a place of abstract thinking: a metaphor for
the freedom of knowledge and also, in reverse, for the knowledge of freedom.
I see beauty in the idea that my response for a knowledge center is a building where the focus is not on concrete, permanently
changing knowledge but on the possibility of thinking: in-other-words, an empty space which can be filled with the thoughts of the
people in it. The ground floor reception room is horizontally open, and the upper floors are, in accordance with their activities,
rather introverted. The extensive “beehive”, un-functional in any common sense, connects these differently characterized spaces. In
terms of forms, the inner, abstract space is analogous, archaic and organic.
Section
The spaces surrounding the “beehive” are the result of rational planning; with their flexibility they express the possibility of change.
The facades are defined by the airy, white ceramic-coated glass, which represents the latest technology. The inner surface of the
“beehive” is an independent work of art: The Zsolnay ceramic tiles, with their world-famous eosin coating, refer to the use of local
historical characteristics. The dual-use of material is intentional. It is important that an architectural work can be read in different
ways: it should be local and international, stylish and traditional, historical and contemporary, but first of all have self-identity.
Török 06.09.2011 (http://www.archdaily.com/166359)