Description

The cantonal library receives around 300,000 visitors a year but has only had a building of its own since 2005, the first time in its more than 170-year history. Before that, its functions were spread across six locations. Liestal is just a 30-minute drive from Basel SBB station, and the availability of cheap building land led to a large population influx in the municipality in the 1970s.
The new library directly adjacent to the station is a landmark visible to travellers from afar. In locations outside but close to conurbations, transport infrastructure forms crucial focal points from which development radiates.
Situated at the edge of the former goods yard, and within walking distance of the intact old town centre of Liestal, the building’s appearance with its tall glass lantern atop the angular hipped roof seems initially puzzling. The reason becomes apparent on entering the building: beneath the skin of Laufen bricks is a former wine warehouse built in 1925, whose structure and roof form were to be preserved.
The building has two fundamentally different sides. Facing the railway lines is a generously glazed entrance area, which glows from behind the roof canopy of the covered access ramp. The town-ward side is two storeys deeper and rests on a grey stucco plinth. Behind the windows with their deep splayed reveals – like a medieval fort the massive outer walls grow successively thinner with each floor – are the admin spaces facing onto the valley and the book stacks on the slopeward side.
All the spaces in the library are arranged around a central atrium with shimmering green glass lifts and a staircase that links the different open access areas of the library. The contrast between the wooden historical framework structure and the new additions – the furniture and floors in particular – is extreme and defines the character of the interior. The new insertions look like a futuristic implant. The bright green of the PU floor and the fitted furniture that appears to rise straight out of the floor gives the interior an almost unreal glow. Shiny white plastic chairs heighten the sense of artificiality. The open-access area is largely sealed off from the outside world, with only the reading carrels in the alcoves receiving light via the striking dormers. The atrium and hall, as well as the various seating areas and secluded reading areas, allow the library to be used in a variety of ways.

Originally published in Bauwelt  08.2006, pp. 26-31, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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