new opening
Francine Houben, founding partner, Mecanoo
grey roofs. I wanted to show the identity of Birmingham as a green city. I also wanted to create spaces where local people and children who may not have access to gardens could experience and learn about plants, which is why we have different herbs, fruit trees and plants in the gardens. The gardens also helped the building to achieve its BREEAM Excellent rating.
Q - What’s your favourite element of the building?
It depends on my mood. I love the gardens, but I also like sitting on the mezzanine and watching people use the different spaces. There’s not one way of learning and reading and here everyone can find their own space where he or she feels most comfortable. This is a building for the people, built with public money and it was very emotional giving it back to the public and watching them using and appreciating it in the first few days. The library makes me happy and now that I’m back in Holland I miss it.
www.mecanoo.nl Meeting the architect’s vision
Demco Interiors was the FF&E contractor for the project’s principal contractor Carillion, providing the entire internal fit out of the library and foyer, bar and restaurant of the Repertory Theatre. For two years the Demco design,
procurement and project management teams worked with contractors, designers, architects and suppliers delivering the uniquely styled, galvanised steel library shelving, the facade benching, work stations, study furnishings, the BFI Mediatheque hubs, children’s areas, staff and customer service desks, touch points, soft furnishings, an ice cream parlour, box office, retail display units, dressing and rehearsal rooms as well as sourcing and supplying hundreds of fixtures and fittings. Demco’s main brief was to work with
partners to deliver the architect’s vision for the new space. Attention to detail was paramount through every stage of the project with parallel managing of design, manufacture and delivery of bespoke items and co-ordinating suppliers. A series of design workshops were carried out with the Library of Birmingham team to review the design and meet the client’s operational requirements, while maintaining the architect’s vision Manufacturer drawings and product samples were produced for approval, while floor plans and product schedules for all 10 floors were created
and submitted. A project installation programme was introduced and city centre logistics and delivery planning began. The urban, industrial look of the
lacquered galvanised steel shelving, echoing Birmingham’s industrial past, was based on the architect’s original concept which included ‘framing’ the books in oak. A challenge for Demco was the manufacture of the wall mounted, curved (to mirror wall curve created by the cut out external amphitheatre) shelving on the lower ground floor. Galvanised steel can’t be naturally bent so special tooling was used to engineer and curve the raw galvanised steel. Curved shelving was also specified for the music library but, because of the back inclined nature of the shelving and the browser boxes, it was not possible to achieve this. However, a curved illusion was created by manufacturing curved oak plinths and canopies and individual shelving bays. The sweeping curves are unusual for linear library shelving and show the level of detail and innovation applied to each and every feature of the library. The children’s library forms part of the
lower ground level and was very much an architect-designed space. Demco co- ordinated the design, manufacture and delivery of many of the features including the curved shelving partition, incorporating
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Image: Christian Richters
Image: Christian Richters
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