Description

The Scientific Information Center and Academy Library, known by its Polish acronym CINiBA, was a joint project of the University of Silesia (Uniwersytet Śląski) and the University of Economics. It opened in 2012 and is located on the University of Silesia campus in Katowice, Poland. Founded in 1928 as part of the Institute of Education the campus is housed primarily in the former Teachers’ Training College.

In search of its own iconic presence, the university issued an international competition in 2002 for a new scientific research library, won by the Koszalin architectural firm HS99. The 13,260 m² facility fulfills an objective to stimulate campus redevelopment that reflects the prestige of the university in this city at the heart of the Upper Silesian industrial region.

Sited at the intersection of the east-west campus spine and the primary north-south axis, intended for future planning, CINiBA opens onto the Forum, a university square. The library’s main entrance, a continuous glazed area in a solid facade, visually connects this civic gathering place with the main three-story atrium of the library. On a campus without the cohesion of an articulated plan the significant placement of the library expresses and reinforces an organization for the growth of the campus.

The plan is a rational one, with the clear and discernible presence of a structural grid designed for the accommodation of book shelves. The building is defined by a six by eight bay configuration, employing a classic strategy in which the dimensions of the whole relate to the capacity and efficiency of the individual bay. Two continuous bays along the eastside are devoted to enclosed spaces such as reading rooms, group study areas, conference rooms, individual workspaces and egress. The remainder of the library is open, designed to accommodate a growth to 2 million volumes. Designed for an efficient combination of stack ranges and aisles, the bay, in its most dense state, accommodates five ranges of shelving, each six units long, and an exit aisle. In areas intended for social interaction shelving ranges are exchanged for seating, resulting in bays of lower density. The flexibility of this design was instrumental to the successful completion of the project when in 2004 the project scope was expanded to include the collections of the University of Economics without a change in the overall size of the building.

For the campus and this area of Katowice, the architecture of CINiBA is both contextual and distinctive. Primarily a three-level building, the library’s height corresponds to the average height of adjacent campus buildings. On the northeast corner a narrow bar holding the library’s closed collections extends seamlessly an additional three levels above the roof, anchoring and asserting the presence of the library and of the Forum. Clad in sandstone called Rich Kahan Red, CINiBA relates to and distinguishes itself from the surrounding clay brick buildings. The facades are composed of large, irregularly cut panels, separated by gaps and arranged in rows. Referencing brickwork, these huge rows, one on top of the next, simulate a quasi-gargantuan running bond in which the narrow gaps conceal windows and appear as abstract mortar joints. The panel heights decrease in size from bottom to top resulting in the semblance of perspective. From a monochromatic and monolithic facade emerges a subtle and complex Mannerist play in which the scale of the building disappears and reappears with different views.

On the interior, the gaps translate into a fenestration of narrow slits that together permeate the reading spaces with diffused light. These slivers of light create an introverted environment that focuses inwardly on study, shielding the readers from external diversions. At night in a complete inversion, the exterior glows with the pattern created by the multitude of lit gaps.

In CINiBA lies a catalyst for change on the Katowice campus. Through its architecture the library sets forth a new direction for future growth on campus and in the city. In looking towards a new era, it embraces yet the timeless notion of reading and solitude.

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