Description

The Münster architect Andreas Schüring’s earlier design for the architecture faculty library in Münster was certainly a factor in his commissioning by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to expand the library of the University of Police and Public Administration in Cologne. The building shell, a long and narrow 700-m²-large space, designed by Heinle, Wischer und Partner was already a given for the project, as were the rows of windows along both long sides and a ceiling height of 3.75 metres.

Taking this neutral, functional unit as his starting point, Schüring, too, began by preparing a framework within which his design plays out. He stuck to a strict black and white palette with only the books themselves adding colour, though in the published photos they too are arranged in orderly series of the same colour. The black linoleum floor runs from wall to wall. Its counterpart is a gridded ceiling made of anodised aluminium with interwoven fins that are thin enough to be bent when force is applied. This suspended ceiling screens but does not entirely conceal the lighting and services above, as one can see when looking directly upwards. The inexpensive fluorescent lighting tubes are mounted in two directions, lengthwise and crosswise, and also at two levels so that their cool light (300 lux in accordance with the norms) appears more or less bright in different areas of the interior. The impression of height is therefore considerably more than the three metres of the suspended ceiling. The resulting space is almost rectangular, with a corner cut out of each end on one side for the entrance to the underground car park and the staircase. This slightly irregular cuboid was the functional container within which Schüring inserted the contents of the library. Working within the grid, he inserted five layers from one end of the room to the other that blur the sense of depth: shelves, both freestanding and along the walls beneath with the windows; four reading carrels as glass reading booths facing the shelves; 23 computer workstations along the window front; an info desk and two small offices. The remaining rectangular space in the axis of the entrance is filled with a loose arrangement of ten round tables, each with four seats. A larger oval table with 16 seats is situated at the end of the room and can be screened off by drawing three, white acoustic curtains that hang from a rail just beneath the ceiling.

To heighten the sense of transparency, Schüring designed the shelves to have a depth of just 23 cm, 12 cm less than usual. In addition, the shelves have no back panels, employing a thin white steel bar along the back to prevent the books falling out. Eight basic modules (2.2 m high × 0.88 m wide) are arranged back-to-back at right angles to the windows and are anchored to the floor with the top open to the ceiling. An open aisle runs along the windows. All the furniture, except for Arne Jacobsen’s iconic “Drop chair”, was designed by the architect and made by inmates at Werl Prison. It was not straightforward, Schüring reports, but the only option given the limited budget, most of which had already been consumed by the gridded ceiling. Colour codes were used instead of numbers on the plans, and everything took a little longer, but the quality didn’t suffer as a result.

The four reading and study carrels are pairs of glass cubicles, one of which is larger than the others. These acoustically and partially visually screened areas are work areas for students to work alone or in groups undisturbed, or without disturbing others. They are enclosed by a C-shaped arrangement of shelves which provide a measure of enclosure while also affording a degree of transparency in both directions. The glazed cubicles have narrow profiles at their corners, but the horizontal top rail is placed above the suspended ceiling so that its junction with the plasterboard-clad elements is not visible. The view from within the cubicles of the different shades of white of the backs of the books is quite beautiful (and very instagrammable!).

By condensing the repository of knowledge and study areas in one half of the room, the remainder of the space is all the freer. But this, too, is a learning space. The tables and chairs can be arranged in countless constellations and the setting can be transformed by drawing the room-high acoustic curtains, which suddenly introduce curves into the otherwise strictly orthogonal arrangement. The architect cites Mies van der Rohe and Lily Reich’s iconic design for the “Café Samt and Seide” as inspiration. Their design for the 1927 trade show ingeniously turned the materials of the German Silk Industry into a space-defining element. 90 years on, Schüring offers the users a means of altering the space to suit their needs – the users as space makers are thus made masters of order and freedom.

Originally published in Bauwelt 18.2020, pp. 42-45, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

 

---