Description

The Upper Austrian State Library in Linz lies in the Neustadt district, built in the second half of the 19th century. Set back from the street, bordering the Schillerpark, the library was built at the beginning of the 1930s. Despite the odd neoclassical flourish, the listed building is one of a series of modernist landmarks scattered across the city built between the First World War and 1938, such as the neighbouring Colosseum cinema, the Parkbad and the tobacco factory by Peter Behrens and Alexander Popp. The building therefore predates the period in which the National Socialists covered the city with their oversized farmhouse-style residential buildings. The refurbishment and extension of the building by Stuttgart architects Bez + Kock restore the library’s urban prominence.
The demolition of the director’s former house provided the space necessary for the conversion of the historical vertical stacks into a contemporary open-access library with underground storage. The design stays beneath the Linz height limit of 25 metres so as not to have to sacrifice space for additional fire protection requirements. The new extension neither formally distinguishes itself from the old building nor imitates it. Instead, it extends it using a similar material palette and individual quotes from the original: the corner at the junction to the existing building, for example, echoes the curve of the historical entrance façade, while the façade is faced similarly with shell limestone. The offices in the new building, like the existing building, have windows but of a narrower width that corresponds to the dimensions of the stone blocks, one of which forms the lintel. They extend vertically to form long slits. The new section thus has its own independent sculptural expression while also being clearly legible as a companion to the old building.
The main entrance for visitors is from the park as before. As such, the narrow steps at the entrance, which lead into an even narrower corridor, and from there, slightly offset, to the main staircase, had to be retained. The entrance situation has, however, been improved by creating openings in the former courtyard wall opposite, so that visitors are automatically guided to the information desk in the new, glass-roofed foyer, which generously connects the old and new buildings in place of the former rear courtyard. This foyer can also be used for events. The resulting atrium is a concentrated, even poetic space with upper galleries running around it that is especially striking when the light falls through the slanted slits in the courtyard-side firewall. The zigzag of the roof structure with its strip lighting is continued in the beams of the column-free gallery levels. They have a span of 16 metres and accommodate most of the new freestanding shelving. The terrazzo flooring echoes that of the original structure but is a dark-grey anthracite colour as opposed to the reddish tone of the historical building. The shell limestone of the external façade is echoed in the interior of the new building, while the windows of the old building, which now face inwards, have been retained.
The State Library is a research library. The workstations are not concentrated in a central reading room but are distributed throughout the entire library and its diverse spaces. On the ground floor there is an informal lounge with journals. The historical high-rack steel shelving system with glass flooring that extends across several storeys in parts has been retained and augmented with slender light strips and a high-pressure water mist extinguishing system. It is accessed via the new staircase at the rear or a lift that stops at every half-level.

Originally published in Bauwelt  38.2009, pp. 24-29, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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