LUBLIANA LIBRARY

ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITION

Spatial idea

Competition site is located in the corner of a casual city block in the center of Lubliana. A massive building is required to house the program defined in the competition brief and open spaces around the competition site are adequate to balance the urban composition. The volume consists of smaller components housing different functions. This composition is inspired by the diverse townscape of Lubliana, it reduces the scale of the building making it more friendly, attractive and humane. The vertical elements highlights the importance and significance of the function of the building and interacts beautifully with the horizontal volumes of the surrounding buildings

We payed special attention to the open public spaces and their relation to the open spaces of the surroundings while composing the volume of the building. Two amphitheater stairways act as public sitting areas as well as the main entrances to the building and are located along the two bordering streets. The public inner passage connects Emonska and Krizanke streets during working hours while open shortcut is reserved in the backyard. Different functions of the site are highlighted with different materials and textures of the ground cover.

Emona ruins

Ruins from Roman Emona are exhibited in their full scope in the entire groundfloor of the library. To signify these ancient elements all new structures are placed in a different coordinate system  -with an angle to the elements of Emona.

Program

The public entrance hall with cafeteria and periodicals reading room is located at the Emona level – lowered from the bordering streets. This level can be entered from the streets via two sets of amphitheater stairs. A “balcony”, housing public reading rooms is located right above it. A cargo area is also located at this level in the inner yard. The more restricted reading rooms and book storage is placed at the top levels. Storage areas are designed with the possibility to be used as reading rooms in the future.

Facades

The building is clad in patinated copper net. It is a timeless material visually typical for the historical areas of European cities. Contemporary character of the building is created by keeping the solid appearance of the volumes while the net allows required light to enter the rooms.