Library Buildings around the World

Der Neubau vermeidet jegliche Konkurrenz: So ist der Glashaut und auch der Kopfseite des Altbaus eine horizontale Struktur aus
Holzlatten vorgehängt - je nach Lichterfordernis in unterschiedlichem Abstand montiert. Hinter der neutralen Hülle kommen alte
und neue Struktur zum Vorschein. Jede der drei Einrichtungen verfügt über einen eigenen, separat erschlossenen Bereich: Die
Musikschule ist in einem schmalen Riegel gegenüber dem Theater untergebracht, die Bibliothek liegt zur Straße. Zwischen beide
Bereiche schiebt sich das Museum mit den rückwärtigen Ausstellungsräumen. Die Dauerausstellung ist zu beiden Seiten einer
zentralen Erschließungsachse angeordnet, die in Form von Himmelsleitern durch das Gebäude verläuft. Die Erschließungszonen
dienen zugleich als Lichtfilter: Mehrgeschossige Lufträume fangen Tageslicht ein und schaffen helle, großzügige Treffpunkte. In der
Eingangshalle entsteht der Eindruck eines öffentlichen, überdeckten Raumes. Warme Materialien strahlen Ruhe und Komfort aus:
Oregon Pine, weißer Putz, Stahlbeton, sandfarbener Linoleum-Boden. Vom Foyer schaut man in einen zweigeschossigen
Ausstellungsraum herab, der für temporäre Ausstellungen genutzt wird. Das Auditorium schwebt als weiße Box frei im Raum und
ist über eine Brücke mit der Bibliothek verbunden. Stege, Lichtbänder und Patios schaffen ein fließendes Raumgefüge, verbinden
die unterschiedlichen Kultureinrichtungen zu einem Gesamtorganismus. Bleibt zu hoffen, dass der kulturelle Austausch zwischen
den Besuchern ähnlich rege ausfällt. Die Vorraussetzungen hierfür sind geschaffen!
(http://six4,bauverlag.de/arch/dbz/archiv.php?object_id=38&area_id=1085&id=67340)
Bibliotheek Technische Universiteit, Delft – The Netherlands 1996 – 1998
Project Architects: Erick van Egeraat, Chris de Weijer, Francine Houben
Awards:
2000 Award for the MillenniumCorus Construction
1998 National Steel Construction Prize, Dutch Steel Building Institute
Literature:
Bouwen met Staal 1997-11/12
de Architect 1998-2
Archis 1998-3
Bouw 1998-6
Architectuur & Bouwen 1998-10
L'Arca 1994-4
Bauwelt 1998-14
Domus 1999-2
Architectural Review 1999-3
Detail 1999-5
Deutsche Bauzeitschrift 1999-11
GA Document 55
Jaarboek 1997-1998
P. Vollaard e.a. - Bibliotheek Technische Universiteit Delft, 1998
A. Betsky e.a. - Mecanoo Francine Houben, 2008
The main library serving Delft University of Technology is sited on a lawn behind Van den Broek & Bakema’s general assembly hall
of 1966. This lawn gradually rises to become the roof of the triangular library; this is where the entrance is. An omnipresent cone
with an open top pokes through the grass roof. The glass facades leaning forward attentively along the approach roads have an
irregular pattern of hatching stressing the horizontal. Though most of the books are stored in a special area in the basement, part of
the gargantuan collection is visible in a ‘stack’ reaching up the full height of the main library hall. The hall has a foyer-like feeling of
openness with its scattering of furniture including the organically shaped book issue desk. The thrusting cone, which dominates here
too, is given over to silent study areas; offices and reading rooms line the library’s glass external walls. Durability and energy
efficiency feature prominently in the building, as witness the underground aquifer reservoir for heat and cold storage, the great
insulating properties of the grass roof and the use of climate facades for the external glazing. (http://www.architectureguide.nl)
Symbiosis:
In designing a large new university library, various references come to the fore. Famous libraries, ranging from the old Bibliothèque
Nationale in Paris (1875) by Henri Labrouste to the Stockholm Municipal Library (1927) by Erik Gunnar Asplund, have called for
an advanced contemporary building. Today such a building must be a gateway to the digital highway but must also refer to
important traditions, including access to knowledge and the rarefied atmosphere of study within a splendid environment. In the case
of Delft, with a thousand workstations and facilities to accommodate three thousand students each day, the building must also be the
heart of the university and provide a landmark within a campus the size of a small town. The design must also consider its
relationship with the centrally placed auditorium, the brutalist building by Van den Broek and Bakema, great names in the history
of the university and Dutch architecture. Through contrast, a symbiosis has been established – the towering concrete of the
auditorium and the landscape in which the library is sited form a new unity.
Pushpin:
The large lawn roof is tilted up at one corner like a sheet of paper held by a single point. The hollow beneath houses the library. A
Cone, the symbol of technology, pierces the library and the landscape, affixing them like a pushpin. With a grass-covered roof, highperformance
glazed facades and subterranean storage for heating and cooling, the building reaches high standards of sustainability.
The entrance affords a glimpse of the sunken book stacks for rare and irreplaceable books. Inside the towering suspended bookcase
for the less fragile books astonishes the visitor. The deep blue background gives the wall-to-wall racks the feel of a theatre set. The
columns in the central hall are not only structural but also provide lighting and heating. The sloping metal ceiling continues without
interruption across all spaces above a floor the colour of Saharan sand.
Perspective:
A library must provide an environment that enables concentration through silence. Comfortable furniture and pleasant lighting.
Daylight penetrates the building not only through the climate-control glazing in the facade but also through the cone that pierces to
the heart of the building. The cone also gives form to a variety of study rooms. The space that adjoins the central hall contains long
tables with three hundred workstations with partitions in a shifting perspective indebted to Labrouste. (Mecanoo)
Faculteit voor Economie en Management, Utrecht – The Netherlands 1993 – 1995
Awards:
1993, Nomination Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European ArchitectureEuropean Union and the Fundació Mies van der
Rohe, Barcelona,
Settlement:
From the beginning of the 1960s Utrecht University campus has been located outside the city, on the De Uithof terrain. A master
plan by OMA/Rem Koolhaas from the early 1990s designated zones to be filled with high-density development to spare the
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