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COTTBUS
KALEIDOSCOPE
This library enlivens both the campus and civic realm of
a former industrial centre striving to reinvent itself.
Cottbus, a banal industrial
city near the Polish border, is
worth a fast hours drive on the
autobahn from Berlin for its
quirky Jugendstil theatre, and as
an incentive to continue on to
Wroclaw (the former Breslau),
a repository of classic modern
buildings. Head south, and you
can stay overnight at Lobau in
Hans Scharouns 1933 Haus
Schminke. Herzog & de Meurons
new university library deserves
its place in this pantheon, as
an example of how the Swiss
partnership fuse rigorous analysis
with poetic beauty.

Located near the main entrance to

Brandenburg Technical University,
an institution founded in 1991
to help reinvigorate the decrepit
shell of this workers paradise,
the new library serves as a bridge
between town and gown. It is
also a symbol of transparency
and free expression, in a way that
the uniform campus buildings
are not. By day, it shimmers on a
grassy knoll (a former sports eld)
just off Karl-Marx Strasse, the
undulating folds of screen-printed
glass reecting every passing cloud;
at night, its a beacon. The organic
form narrows and swells as you

1
The sinuous volume of
the library is wrapped
in a double layer of
glass silk screened
with letters that form
a visual babble.
2
Like a monumental
Aalto vase, the library
commands its campus
site, formerly a
university sports field.
3
Main entrance and
detail of shimmering,
alphabetic cladding.

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LIBRARY AND MEDIA CENTRE ,

COTTBUS , G ERMANY
ARCHITECT
HERZOG & DE M EURON

65 | 4

move around it, and the curved

bays ow into the landscape,
creating a strong sense of place.
It also has scale and substance, in
contrast to the same architects
Allianz Stadium in Munich (AR
June 2005) which resembles a
huge balloon that might deate if
punctured by some hooligan.
As Herzog & de Meuron
demonstrated in the recent
exhibition of their work at the
Schaulager in Basel and later at the
Tate Modern (AR July 2005), every
project begins with study models,
and a consideration of materials.
The library plan morphed from a
circular disc of acrylic into a series

of amoeba-like shapes that were

determined, as the architects insist,
by a purposeful conguration of
many different ows of movement
and their ability to reorganise
and restructure urban space.
The shape generates a sensuous
presence in a relentlessly
orthogonal frame, while
maximising the exposure of the
interior to natural light and views.
That spirit of joy and
exuberance is sustained
throughout the seven-storey
building. In contrast to most
libraries, in which reading areas
are ranged around a core of
books and stacked repetitively

cross section

on top of one another, here the

oors are cut away to provide
a diversity of spaces, each with
a distinct character, and each a
part of a single interior volume.
Some reading areas are two
or three stories high and are
bathed in natural light from the
sides and above, while others
have intentionally low ceilings to
provide intimacy and enclosure.
A sober palette of white
and grey fosters concentration,
but the circulation areas at the
centre are an explosion of colour.
Floors are painted in ultra vibrant
stripes that are reected in the
metal ceilings and shelves. These

coruscating hues are picked up

in the cylindrical lift, and a 6mdiameter spiral stair that drills
through the building like a giant
corkscrew. When viewed from
below it becomes a pink and green
hallucinogenic vortex, but is also,
more prosaically, a vertical street
on which students and staff can
linger to chat.
Patterned skins are a Herzog &
de Meuron signature, and theres
a fascinating contrast between
the gurative facades of etched
glass and concrete in their library
at Eberswalde, an hour north
of Berlin, and the abstraction of
Cottbus. Its glazed shell is printed

on both sides with words in

different tongues and alphabets,
superimposed to become a
meta language. The two layers
of silk-screened dots achieve
a moir effect that softens the
expanses of glass, blocks glare, and
screens out distractions. Nighttime illumination is provided by
corkscrew chandeliers supporting
corkscrew bulbs which transforms
the building into a glowing
organism, enticing the studious
into its depths. MICHAEL WEBB

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2
3
4
5
6
7
8

4
Entrance hall and
main reception. Pink
predominates.
5
Typical doubleheight reading area,
penetrated by the pink
and green corkscrew
staircase.
6
Coruscating hues
animate the interior.
7
The vortex becomes a
place of interaction.

Architect
Herzog & de Meuron, Basel
Photographs
Monika Nikolic

main entrance
entrance hall
caf
reading rooms
book stacks
ofces
study carrels
void

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8

8
2

location plan
3

4
4

66 | 4

LIBRARY AND MEDIA CENTRE ,

COTTBUS , G ERMANY
ARCHITECT
HERZOG & DE MEURON

lower ground floor

ground floor plan (scale approx 1:1250)

first floor

second floor

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