Description

The Bibliothek des Rechtswissenschaftlichen Instituts, designed by Santiago Calatrava for the Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich, is formed by a series of seemingly floating, hollow elliptical plates inscribed into the rectilinear courtyard of a historic building. Formerly accommodating the Alte Kantonsschule (secondary school), the complex, designed in 1909 by the cantonal chief architect Herman Friez, featuring Neo-Baroque and Art Nouveau style elements, was adapted for the use by the Law Faculty. When seen from the street, the intervention is restricted to the new glass dome and the appearance of the historic building was preserved.

A narrow passageway congruent with the minor axis of the elliptical plan leads from an external lobby onto the library’s stone-paved entry plaza. Seven floors above, a steel-framed arched skylight, connecting the foci of the outer ellipse, funnels an abundance of natural light through the eye of the library. Towards the top of the lightwell the center void increases gradually in diameter, resulting in the volumetric shape of a reverse elliptical cone. The visual effect of an almost continuous surface is strengthened by surrounding, inclined, tall balustrades clad with vertically oriented maple wooden slats.

While traveling between floors, cylindrical glass-enclosed elevators at opposite ends of the major axis offer a dramatic view into the lightwell. The collection is placed on linear wooden shelves following the circumference of the outer ellipse. Conveniently accessible by the scholars, the wall of books also provides a colorful enclosure to the study space. Solid maple panels forming the back of the shelving system create a serene surface complementing the white plaster of the historic facade. Highly tensional/interstitial, compressed and decompressed volumes generated by the insertion of an elliptical sphere into a rectangular cube are omnipresent within the library while framed views of the juxtaposition are offered through preserved and new window openings into the transformed space.

Both the solitaire character and the suspended nature of the inserted library body are enabled by the structural concept. The tubular steel skeleton of the inserted volume is anchored back to the existing structure in a method that eliminates not only the need for columns on the entry level, but also limits the necessity for structural bridging along the perimeter. Expressed tapered steel ribs radiating from the exterior tubular ring support the cantilevered library floor. Light coffers formed by the plates enhance the dynamic curvature of the floor plates and create a central void. Two glass-enclosed stories, housing offices on the lower level and a study zone above, were added to the back of the existing structure. Enclosure of the once open courtyard reduced the exposure to weather, resulting in energy savings.

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Originally published in: Nolan Lushington, Wolfgang Rudorf, Liliane Wong, Libraries: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2016.