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Public Library 
Landau, Germany
Lamott Architekten

 


Eastern bridge with robustly expressed junction between old and new structures		 The glass extension, being built on two levels with a projecting screen of horizontal wooden slats, wraps around the south-west corner enclosing the open west side, and providing the main entrance to the library. This face relates to a new public square, made by demolishing the cooling house which was considered of little architectural or historical interest.
Generally, the glass box is reserved for the library's noisier elements. Floored with black asphalt (indicating public activities) it contains the entrance hall, stairs and glass lift, newspapers and cafe. 

A suspended concrete plane detached from the walls and columns and reached by a flight of steel and wooden stairs, provides an upper level. This is connected to the extension's administrative offices by suspended steel bridges. The largest of them is penetrated by a spiraling steel staircase.    

Western bridge with clerestories shedding light into the ground floor

Entrance hall (west)

 

The design of the floating upper level of the building permits luminance from clerestories to reach the ground floor around the edges and filter through perforations around the cast iron columns.

Reference: The Architectural Review, September 1999

 

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