BCU

university library extension

This was a competition for the new extension of the Central University Library in Cluj. The site is next to the existing two buildings built in 1910 and 1960, in the center of the city, part of a network of green surfaces woven into the urban tissue. From a volumetric point of view, the new building is set back from the street 7 metres to create a contemporary ‘front garden’ that fits into the character of the area. However, the 7 meter cantilever of the top floor maintains the alignment of the front, and at the same time protectively covers the garden.

The interior is defined by the temporary dimension of the library experience – the assimilation of information without words and by individual gestures. Changing light, atmospheric and seasonal conditions achieve almost tangible spatial qualities.

The project was developed from the interior, through the fully glazed facades the spaces become receptors – resonance chambers of the temporal phenomenons. The core of storage for books occupies the least favourable area for natural light, the rest of each floor is for reading and completely free of structural elements.

The roof terrace is reserved for a lounge bar, above which an observation deck provides reflects the surroundings and disconnects the visitors from the ground, it belongs to the sky.

 

PROGRAM: new reading facilites and storage for books
STATUS: competition
SURFACE: 5700 sqm
LOCATION: Cluj
YEAR: 2010
CO-AUTHORS: Kiss Zoltan, FM Proiect, Liviu Petreus