Description
The Jacob-und-Wilhelm-Grimm-Zentrum designed by Max Dudler for the Humboldt Universität in Berlin realizes for the first time in the nearly 180-year history of the institution the vision of a library open to the public. It comprises the central library and twelve distinct departmental library collections. Located along the elevated train line between Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse and Hackescher Markt, the building completes the southern edge of a typical Berlin city block. Bearing the name of the Grimm Brothers, who were appointed to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1840, the library innovatively combines core library functions with computer and media services. The precious private library of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is preserved in a vault located on the top floor of the new facility.
Clearly delineated zones establish the spatial organization of the building and consequently induce the aesthetic rigor innate in the expression of the exterior and interior facades. Max Dudler interprets the entity of a book as the smallest Gestalt-giving module, creating a “sculpture made of stone.” Light spilling out of the long and narrow apertures, varying in width and cut deep into the stone envelope, transforms the rather monolithic day-time appearance of the sculpture into a vibrant body at night, revealing both the shelving units on the interior in rhythm with the window openings and the exterior impression of books aligned on shelving.
An urban longitudinal plaza increasing the setback between train viaduct and building, the entrance hall external to the secured core, the internal circulation spine and finally the library’s central terraced reading room encapsulated by the collection, all follow the underlying principle of linearity, symmetry and an orientation-enhancing order.
Inside the tiered volume of the reading room, the orthogonal structural grid was increased threefold in density by column enclosures functioning as vertical shafts for the routing of building systems. This departure from the typical bay pattern introduces a three-dimensional skeleton of a scale apart from the surrounding floors. Vertical and horizontal glass panels inserted into this wood-clad framework create a unique interplay between light and dark, transparency and opaqueness. Outside the library’s nucleus, the concept of open and obscured views is continued on the surrounding stack floors. Library aisles establish view corridors connecting back to the reading room and diametrically offer a visual link to the city. The dialectic between the secluded space, traditionally associated with limited-access stack concepts, and the outside world, manifests itself in the 2 million books, freely accessible to the scholar and the public alike. By offering the invaluable experience of browsing, distinctive intellectual pursuits are taken out of isolation and a far richer explorative fabric is woven.
The tall light-filled entry hall serves as a meeting point, an information commons, a dining hall and a distribution hub providing access to lower floor locker rooms, mezzanine seating areas, book drops and the library core. Accessible from three sides, this gathering space constitutes a lively public forum in contrast to the stillness of the inner building beyond. Multi-media teaching and learning facilities occupy the voids formed under the lower tiers of the cascading reading room. Acoustically separated from the central space by glazing, the classrooms benefit from the abundant daylight infiltrating the great reading room.
Along the first floor circulation spine, equipped with self-checkout stations, display windows reveal the technical complexity of two automated book sorting and vertical routing systems. Original card catalogue units still serving parts of the historic collection are integrated into a modern, data-based reference library playing off on the omnipresent dialogue between tradition and modernity. The concept challenges the expensive and overrated request for flexibility in anticipation of future library infrastructural changes by emphasizing aesthetic, environmental and ergonomic qualities. Along the stack floor perimeters specially dimensioned shelving units can be substituted for seating, while removable shaft enclosures provide maintenance access to building systems. A co-generation energy concept paired with daylight harvesting and air duct activated concrete slabs contribute to a sustainable library for the future.
Drawings
Second floor
Sixth floor
Cross section
Longitudinal section
South elevation
East elevation
Photos
The library completes the edge of a typical Berlin city block, with the lower volume of the central reading room continuing the cornice height of the adjacent historic buildings
The central terraced reading room is encapsulated by the collection and roofed by expansive skylight panels
Originally published in: Nolan Lushington, Wolfgang Rudorf, Liliane Wong, Libraries: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2016.