NATIONAL LIBRARY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC COMPETITION
Prague, Czech Republic
The brief called for a modern research and public library with the National Archives at the edge of a large urban park. The design extends the public parkland onto the roof plate of the new library. The main library hall lies directly beneath the roof plate and it receives natural light from a series of triangular skylights. From the library roof rises the 200-feet tall tower that houses the National Archives. The parliament library and its reading room occupy the very top of the tower from where visitors can enjoy breathtaking views over the old city and the Prague castle.
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​The building will become a powerful landmark and a symbol for the ascension of information in the already rich urban fabric of Prague. The building will contribute greatly to the development of Letenske Sady Park and the surrounding neighborhood as an important destination for both locals and internationals. The design speaks to both the openness that is the hallmark of a public library, exhibited by its functional ease and organizational transparency and to the complexity inherent in developing a dynamic civic space. Finally, public services, offices and book storage, while separated from each other, form a flexible and modular entity facilitating future changes.
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THE NEW NATIONAL LIBRARY AT THE CROSSROADS OF TWO AXES
Information storage is organized along a vertical axis reaching from the Universal Collection Storage rooms (below ground level) to the National Archive and Parliament Library (located in the tower). The number of visitors is greatest at the ground level and diminishes towards the top and the bottom of the building while the amount of information storage is largest at the building’s vertical extremity and lowest at the ground level. And thus, an equilibrium in information density is achieved between these two types.
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LANDSCAPE INTEGRATION
At the edge of the park, the library forms a very shallow slope thus folding the park landscape onto the library’s roof. The park is not simply lifted but transformed into a sparkling field of north facing skylights, which provide views into a magnificent reading room below. The modular pattern of skylight geometry changes direction in the field and provides a multitude of views. The library tower grows out of the field as a culmination of the folded park landscape. The library tower is covered with an array of elements, the inverse to the skylight horizontal roof. As the skylights on the roof are composed by a series of cuts into a pleated surface, the “cut-out” elements generate and form a dynamic curving surface. At the bottom of each of these surface elements, a light source provides a subtle glow and ensures the proper illumination of the tower at night.
THE OPEN LIBRARY ROOM CONCEPT
Beneath the library roof skylights lies a cavernous, terraced, open library room containing most of the areas that are accessible to the public.
This room is designed to satisfy three primary desires: the stepped terraces of the reading room in conjunction with the north facing skylights provide optimal lighting conditions for readers and open stacks while preventing the collections’ exposure to direct sunlight.
A visitor can literally look down and see how the library is organized. This provides and instant sense of orientation and provides the individual with a powerful tool with which to navigate and experience the library. Terraces, nooks, carrels and reading room break up the giant space into smaller, more private areas to provide some intimacy and privacy for the user without compromising the librarians’ ability to monitor the space.​​​
THE LIBRARY TOWER
In addition to the symbolic function of the tower in the city and its visibility in the skyline, the tower will be omnipresent throughout the entire building. At closer views, its subtly transforming surface breaks the volume up into a series of modular elements analogue to the towers content. As the National Archive collection is formed by a large number of individual elements, the tower’s exterior surface is shaped into arrays of similar elements, which together, constitute the form of the entire library tower. Most of the tower contains closed book storage. The National Archive collection occupies the lower portion while the parliament library collection sits at the top. The reading room for the National Archive collections at midpoint provides the only interruptions in the uniformity of the archival tower. Both reading rooms are oriented to the southwest to allow uninterrupted views of the Prague castle and the St. Vitus Cathedral
