Marrying 24-hour opening and energy efficiency is a critical challenge for libraries and learning spaces. UCL sought to tackle this challenge in the design of the Student Centre. Opened in 2019, the new building is open 24-hours, all year round, and was awarded an awarded ‘Outstanding’ sustainability rating for its […]

The Gabriel Garcia Marquez Library just opened in a working class neighborhood in Barcelona. It’s magical. It’s real. And it’s the kind of place that makes you wonder why every city doesn’t give its residents palaces for the people. Eric Klinenberg. Author of “Palaces for the People”. Continue Reading

In 2019 the University Library of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich opened its largest subject library to date, the Philologicum. The new building unites ten libraries of the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature under one roof, offers 740 workspaces for different uses, and houses approx. 400.000 volumes. The new building structure […]

The Vysocina Regional Library in Havlíckuv Brod opened in 2020. It is an elaborate building, during the implementation of which emphasis was placed on high utility value, quality of materials and ecology. It is a comprehensive work that will enrich the unused public space of the town and provide a […]

Helsinki Central Library Oodi is a living meeting place at Kansalaistori square, right at the heart of Helsinki. It is one of 37 branches of Helsinki City Library and part of the Helmet library network. Oodi complements the cultural and media hub formed by Helsinki Music Centre, Finlandia Hall, Sanoma […]

The National Library of Luxembourg (Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg, BnL) is the country’s leading academic, research and cultural heritage library. It collects, catalogues and preserves all analogue and digital publications published in Luxembourg and any works published abroad that relate to the Grand Duchy. As an academic and research library, […]

Located in the north-east of Scotland, The University of Aberdeen was established in 1495 and its library holds over a million books including significant special collections.  The 15,500 m² spectacular new Sir Duncan Rice Library designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen officially opened in 2012 and provides an advanced 21st century […]

Luxembourg 2018 The University Library opened the new Luxembourg Learning Centre (LLC) in September 2018 after 12 years of planning. It is a modern library, fit for the years to come with enough space for the growing number of students, including collaborative spaces, and with a modern and flexible technology […]

Ghent 2011 At the Department of Engineering and Architecture an existing physics laboratory from the 19th century was remodeled to a faculty library. Steel elements were inserted under the balustrade on all sides to contain three levels of bookshelves and stairs. In the center of the room there are reading […]

Barcelona, 2014. “(…) The approach of the competition, won with the motto “Garden of Light” defined clearly the will to preserve the historical garden located around the Vil·la Florida, wich has been working for years as a Civic Cener, while digging out the earth to build below ground level a […]

Marburg, 2018. In the heart of the Philipps-Universität, a modern new library was opened in April 2018, housing 46 km of shelved books from the central library plus several branch libraries in the humanities and social sciences. The elegant three-storey building offers 1250 seats for users and is situated between […]

Dublin, 2017. In July 2017 RCSI opened a state of the art ten storey health sciences education building. At the heart of the building is the RCSI Library occupying three floors, levels zero to two, with advanced clinical and surgical simulation facilities above, and a five hundred-seat auditorium and sports […]

Ghent, 2017. In 2009 an architectural competition was organised for a public place with lots of space for reading, learning and living in the city. In this digital era, a city library’s role has changed. In a society which offers an abundance of information, there is a need to help […]

Bordeaux, 2015. The project is situated on the right bank of the River Garonne, which is traditionally cut off from the city centre, but currently part of a large-scale urban planning project.The new wing and the renovated hall, defines the dimensions of the forecourt, ensuring it remains open. This public […]

Barcelona, 2018 The project aspired, as a public library, to be a center of access to information, to guarantee the democratization of culture and knowledge, to be a center of social integration, promotion of reading, longlife-learning, self-learning and, at the same time, a leisure space. But it aspired to do […]

Freiburg, 2015. The number of study spaces available was to be vastly increased, and a much more diversified and differentiated study and research environment planned. Quiet study spaces in the reading rooms and the access to the open stacks on the one hand were to be kept strictly separate from […]

Oxford, 2014. The library in the university’s new award-winning John Henry Brookes building opened in February 2014. Library team wanted to create a new experience for our users by providing a library that would be an inspirational space for study, learning and research, provide easy access to information resources, both […]

Dublin, 2015 The old library was no longer fit for purpose. There was an insufficient number of seats, no space for Special Collections and not enough shelving. The main objectives for the new space was to provide a stand alone library building. Library moved from a one floor space to […]

Paris, 2013 The starting point for the renovation of the 1902 buiding by Henri-Paul Nénot was the need for security and hygienic conditions, as well as the upgrading of the installations (electricity, plumbing). Access to disabled people would be solved. An ambitious restoration operation was undertaken, that woul also allow […]

Darmstadt, 2012 The new library is located in the center of the inner city campus – between the cafeteria and the old main building of the Technical University of Darmstadt. It is therefore easily accessible for university users. Main aims and objectives of the project were installation of the relevant […]

Zlín, 2013 The library was renovated to get more space, more holdings in open stacks, more readers´ places including group study, individual study rooms and places with computers. Ther was also an extension of the opening hours to the public, self-service possibility, concentration of the whole library stock under one […]

Vienna University of Economics and Business, 2013 The center of the WU is both physically and symbolically a library and learning center, which should be more than a classic library: It is also a library and service center, workplace and lounge, communication space and transport hub. Central functions of the […]

Vilnius, 2013 The SCIC is a modern and advanced centre of knowledge and information, providing information resources, services and programmes of high quality and wide-ranging variety, with inspiring and motivating physical and virtual environment for users. The SCIC library needed a modern infrastructure of information and communication, which would help […]

Winterthur, 2015. Main aims of the project were to close the five old small library locations in Winterthur, provide new services for the students and the scientists, extend the number of reader seats, workplaces and group rooms, and create a learning landscape with an activity-based conception of more than 1700 […]

Hradec Králové, 2008 The main aims of the new project was to build a modern environment with new technologies and more space for educational and cultural events. See it here!