Stefanie Kondring
Zentralbibliothek Ulm. FH Aachen (Germany)
Task
Due to insufficient space the current central library can only serve to a limited extend. As part of the future program “Ulm 2005”, a new construction in the southern part of the city centre will have priority, offering 4.600 sq.meters. The plot provided contains approximately 2.300 sq. meters. The advertiser requests a solution in the western part of the market square developed with regard to the historic city hall.
Idea of draft
The search for an architectural demonstration of a public building – with respect to a general understanding of proceedings and the resulting implicitness of use – led to an intrastructural idea, based on books and their presentation in shelves. The primary orientation should not be given by a directory, but by a visualisation of the wholeness of existing information in one location. This led to the idea of a building of books, in which book, bookshelf, “wall of books” and finally library are successively generated. Also generated is the “city shelf” – a public identity, open and accessible to all. The base element is the bookshelf, expressing the abstract thought of a city shelf architecturally. The “book wall” is defined by existing media. The differentiation of various library areas into single realms of experience was achieved by solids.
“Book walls” and “solids”
The “book walls” are interior of the public space. Their purpose is to create relations of views between inside and outside. The solids form the building. They are the casing’s drive, aligned with buildings and streets, to give the library a body and to integrate it in its surrounding. To clearly show the design elements “book wall” and “solid” in their respective functions, the main shelves had to be removed from the façade-line. They penetrate the façade and thus initiate access as well as further thought.
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