Stockholm, Sweden
Our remaking of the Stockholm Public Library begins with respect for the original Asplund library, for the annexes of Lallerstedt, for the beauty of Observatory Hill, and for the urban scale of Stockholm’s Latin Quarter. With reverence for these valued resources, we have carefully inserted the new library additions in-between the existing buildings and landscape, thus allowing them to remain as historical, yet functional, artifacts of their time and giving them new life in the reformed composition of the new library. At the location of the removed 4th wing to the library we have inserted a glass-enclosed arcade that provides an urban connection in-between the Latin Quarter and Observatory Hill and creates a grand winter garden, to serve as a new living room for all of Stockholm. In between the existing annex buildings we have inserted three light structures of glass and steel that contain reading rooms and the open collections. The balance of the new library addition takes on the form of three stepped terraces that are inserted into the hill behind the annexes. Each upper terrace is deeper than the one below it, responding to the natural contours of the hill, thereby increasing the amount of open collection space in each subsequent terrace.
Designed under the direction of Christopher Coe while Managing Director and Director of Design of Arquitectonica Los Angeles.