Description

The orientation of the city of Oslo towards its waterfront began long ago with the protracted construction of the new city hall (competition 1918, start of construction 1930, inauguration 1950). Since then, the Opera House by Snøhetta (2008), the National Museum by Kleihues & Schuwerk (2021) and the Munch Museum “Lambda” by Herreros Arquitectos (2021) have followed its example. Another public building on the fringe of the fjord is the new city library in the Björvika district, the Deichmanske Bibliotek. Since 1933 it had been housed in a neo-classical building in close proximity to the Y-Block building in the government quarter that was devastated by the 2011 bombing and has since been demolished. The public institution has always borne the name of the Norwegian ironworks owner Carl Deichman.
The city library was founded thanks to the pioneering industrialist, who bequeathed his sizeable private library of 6,000 volumes to the city on his death in 1780. The new, silvery-white building is immediately visible after leaving the main railway station to the south and turning towards the opera house – and this visual axis from the station to the opera was to be respected. The two architecture offices Atelier Oslo (Nils Ole Brandtzaeg) and Lundhagem (Einar Hagem) submitted a joint design in 2009 and won the competition.
The librarians of the previous building, having spent years negotiating its many stairs, expressly requested a building with as few thresholds as possible. In addition, the library complex was also to incorporate commercial space, offices and flats. The Akerselva River, which historically separates the proletarian east from the bourgeois west of the city, flows into the eastern edge of the building site. Its situation at the mouth of the river posed considerably difficulties: the piles on which the library rests are 17 metres deep, resulting in a construction reminiscent of an oil rig, which not only delayed the building process but also made it more expensive.
The programme of spaces is spread over three volumes: the library to the west facing the station forecourt, offices to the east, and a block of student flats in between. The decision not to create a building with a static figure reduces its functional complexity and contributes to an urban scale that does not compete with the neighbouring opera house. The ground floor houses a café-pavilion, and the reading room in the upper section tiers down like an amphitheatre. Its 18-metre cantilevered ceiling placed high demands on the structural design (structural engineers: Bollinger & Grohmann).
Three “light shafts” cut diagonally through the lower levels and join to form a large atrium on the third floor. These spaces – whose geometry was developed with the help of numerous models – connect the interior to its surroundings and create visual relationships that lend the various spatial situations a sense of cohesion.
Corresponding to these light shafts are three cores whose outer faces serve as shelves and structure the building like book towers. They contain fire escape stairs, but also rooms for administration as well as Deichman’s collection of books. The others contain group workspaces and meeting rooms, a recording studio, rehearsal rooms and workshops. Together with the light shafts, the cores structure the floor plans into various areas with different room constellations on each floor and varying ceiling heights – a complex whole that invites visitors to discover its diverse qualities.

Originally published in Bauwelt  03.2021, pp. 20-25, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

---