Danish company Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects has completed a 30,000-square-metre library in Aarhus, Denmark, with a faceted metal-clad volume on top and a new train station underneath .
Positioned beside the harbour on the east side of Aarhus, Urban Mediaspace is the largest construction venture in the Danish city’s background and the library – known as Dokk1 – is set to become the biggest in Scandinavia when it opens tomorrow.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen, which won a competition to layout the complex in 2009, conceived the building as a stack of different volumes – a “polygonal slice” on top, a glazed creating in the middle and a podium at the base.
This generates space for the library and a nearby services centre, as properly as a devoted station for the new light railway and a vehicle park with an automated parking system.
“Dokk1 is not simply a creating,” said Schmidt Hammer Lassen senior partner Kim Holst Jensen. “It is a place for exchanging understanding and possibilities and a multicultural meeting stage that will alter people’s perception of the complete city.”
“Dokk1 enhances this unique setting with an architecture that produces an outstanding visual connection to the city – both from within the developing and out,” he continued.
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“Via this, we type an icon for the knowledge society, an icon that supports and stimulates imaginative collaboration.”
There are 4 huge staircases all around the perimeter, which fan outwards to entice visitors to venture up to various entrances on the elevated podium level. The intention was for the constructing to have no clear front and back.
The glazed middle section houses the two primary library floors, giving 360-degree views out in excess of the water and the city.
These two levels are connected internally by a series of 5 staggered platforms, accommodating exhibitions, gaming, workshops, studying and occasions. Described by the architects as “a meandering path of activity,” they lead immediately into the children’s part of the library.
To help sustain a sense of openness, there are holes in the floorplates throughout the interior. This creates normal double-height spaces, which turn into organic meeting points.
“Inside, the open layout produces visual connections amongst the numerous functions, and invites the visitor to be inspired by the huge quantity of info that inevitably meets them,” mentioned Kim Holst Jensen.
“Openness encourages social interaction and the exchange of information,” he additional. “Dokk1 will become a vibrant space for people of all generations, interests and cultures. Our idea, with interweaving routines and functions, supports this synergy.”
The uppermost floor accommodates municipal and other offices. This part of the creating is clad with expanded metal, making a reflective exterior. A narrow strip of windows runs close to the complete perimeter.
The building’s height was informed by its instant surroundings, which incorporate cranes and ships in the harbour, many 5- and six-storey blocks, and the 96-metre-large spire of Aarhus Cathedral past.
Dokk1 is one particular of a series of library tasks by Schmidt Hammer Lassen. The company has recently finished two libraries in Canada, 1 in Halifax and one in Edmonton, and is also creating the substitute for the developing wrecked after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The wider Urban Mediaspace project forms element of the major redevelopment of the Aarhus harbour, which also involves the development of the Isbjerget housing complex, designed by a staff including JDS Architects and CEBRA.
Three railway stations run along the edge of this zone. There is also a series of new bicycle paths, connecting with new public squares around the library and a cycle parking location with 450 spaces.
The undertaking was finished in collaboration with Kristine Jensens Landscaping and engineering consultancy Alectia.
Photography is by Adam Mørk.
Project credits:
Architect: Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
Client: Aarhus Municipality
Client partner: Realdania
Engineer: Alectia Rådgivende Ingeniører
Landscaping: Arkitekt Kristine Jensens Tegnestue
Consumer consultant: Rambøll Danmark
Accessibility: Bahn Arkitekter
Ground floor program 
1st floor program 
Second floor program 
Third floor prepare 
Area Dezeen
