new opening
The People’s Palace
The new £188.8m Library of Birmingham, designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo, is the largest public library in Europe and a striking new addition to the city’s skyline.
DESCRIBED by the architect Francine Houben as a “a people’s palace”, the library covers 31,000sq m over 10 levels and shares a spacious entrance, foyer and a 300-seater studio with the adjoining, newly refurbished and re-opened Repertory Theatre. The library is approximately 20 per cent
larger than the old Central Library building and gives access to more than 400,000 books with a further 600,000 items of library stock available in the storage areas. More than three million visitors a year are expected to visit the library. Mecanoo and multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold were appointed in 2008 following an international completion. The team has worked with Birmingham City Council’s library and archive service to design a building that responds to the needs of the people of Birmingham in the 21st century. Located in Birmingham’s Centenary
Square next to The Rep Theatre and Symphony Hall, the library forms part of the council’s ambitious 20-year Big City Plan to regenerate the city.
“For me, a library should be a transparent
welcoming space filled with light,” says Houben. At the same time it should capture the spirit of the city. The building’s facade therefore features delicate metal filigree, composed of interlocking circles that reference Birmingham’s industrial and artisanal past. Floor-to-ceiling windows on public floors allow daylight to pass through these and cast patterned shadows on the porcelain tiled floors. A series of interlocking rotundas draw visitors into the library and provide
ventilation and natural light throughout. These circular voids are designed to provide enticing sight lines, drawing visitors up through the building. The first rotunda, an outdoor amphitheatre
extending into Centenary Square, provides a performance space for music, drama, poetry reading and storytelling, and brings the activities of the library out into the city’s largest public square.
The Book Rotunda at the heart of the
library is ringed by four levels of cantilevered circular balconies spread over three floors, each providing access to a different part of the shelves that comprise the book wall. Escalators zigzag across the space, providing views throughout the library. Daylight comes from the rooftop three floors above through a dramatic space that passes through the two Golden Box archive floors. Visitors can travel by lift through the upper part of this space to reach the Skyline Viewpoint, giving views across the city, and the Shakespeare Memorial Room in the golden rotunda on the roof of the
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Image (also above): Christian Richters
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