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Public Library 
Landau, Germany
Lamott Architekten

south face of library with glass extension

The shell of the town's old slaughterhouse was chosen by the city of Landau as a suitable container for building a modern public library. The building was part of a 19th century industrial estate, with entrance lodges, cooling house and water tower serving the slaughterhouse.

The original structure was built from cast iron, brick and sandstone. It consisted of two long halls with ridged roofs and clerestory windows that, flanked by aisles, ran north-south. The building had a heavy, almost fort-like appearance with dressed openings and the suggestion of pediments and finials. On the west it was open to the cooling house that lay between it an the water tower.

The building had to be extended to accommodate the brief. This specified room for 75,000 units of media- books, film, videos, newspapers, magazines- and required space for reading, reference and children's libraries, administrative and secondary offices. A glass extension was constructed on the south side of existing structure with the junction between old and new expressed by a top-lit aisle. Projecting above the roof line on either side, its roof casts light into the spaces below.

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