Bibliothéque nationale du Luxembourg, Luxembourg

BOLLES+WILSON with WW+

Products

1144
Door handle fitting

The FSB 1144 door handle is just as pleas­ing to the eye as it is to the hand. Jasper Mor­ri­son de­signed this door handle to be in­stantly recog­nis­able as a tool meant for the hand. Your eyes relax and your hand takes over. Your thumb falls into place, your fore­fin­ger finds its hollow and your hand finds some­thing sub­stan­tial to grasp. This is pre­cisely what the ‘Four-Point Guide to Good Grip’ drawn up by FSB and Otl Aicher calls for.

1144
Door handle fitting

Culture revitalises the Kirchberg plateau

Re­cently opened, the new Na­tional Library of Lux­em­bourg already graces a special stamp pro­duced by the Lux­em­bourg Post Office. It’s no wonder, because not only is it the archive of the entire history of the small country, but also an im­pres­sive build­ing. The Bib­lioth?que na­tionale was de­signed by Münster-based ar­chi­tec­tural firm BOLLES+WILSON, which was awarded the con­tract in 2003 fol­low­ing a suc­cess­ful in­ter­na­tional bid. The build­ing of­fi­cially opened on 1 October 2019. The library was orig­i­nally planned for the other end of the long Avenue John F. Kennedy, in a re­stored old build­ing with a direct view of the his­toric old town. But plans changed and the ar­chi­tects were com­mis­sioned to design a com­pletely new library build­ing for a new lo­ca­tion. The library is now sit­u­ated further down the avenue to the north-east, outside of the old his­toric centre. It has become part of the ex­ten­sive urban and cul­tural de­vel­op­ment of the dis­trict.

Once farm­land, the Kirch­berg plateau became the birth­place of the Eu­ro­pean idea, in a manner of speak­ing, after the Second World War. The dis­trict is shaped by Eu­ro­pean in­sti­tu­tions like the Eu­ro­pean Court of Justice or the Council of the Eu­ro­pean Union. For several years, however, it has further de­vel­oped into a vibrant mixed-use quarter. The ar­chi­tects had to come up with a com­pletely new vision for this new lo­ca­tion.

‘A cul­tural build­ing has to conquer this place. It shouldn't stick out like a sore thumb, but it should make a skilful, in­ten­tional and sculp­tural state­ment,’ Julia Bolles-Wil­son says of the urban de­vel­op­ment chal­lenge. City li­braries are chang­ing their role in society in view of the digital trans­for­ma­tion. The in­ter­net is now the best de­pos­i­tory of in­for­ma­tion. But you can’t retreat com­fort­ably online or meet someone for a coffee to discuss lit­er­a­ture.

The Bib­lioth?que na­tionale du Lux­em­bourg makes social life the focus and offers a foyer, café and a con­fer­ence and seminar centre in ad­di­tion to two and a half million books and media. As an archive, it is also re­spon­si­ble for pre­serv­ing and sharing Lux­em­bourg’s cul­tural her­itage.

Working to­gether as a con­sor­tium:

BOLLES+WILSON (concept, design and de­tailed plan­ning)

WW+ ar­chitek­tur + man­age­ment s?rl (ten­der­ing and con­struc­tion man­age­ment)

Architect and object

Photo: Thomas Rabsch

‘This library guards the com­plete history of Lux­em­bourg, in the form of 2.5 million media. The place­ment of the archive was the main factor that de­ter­mined how the build­ing was or­gan­ised. It lies at the heart of the build­ing, under the rising reading land­scape, en­cap­su­lated in fortress-like gabions,’ the ar­chi­tects say of their design.

The library as a landscape

The red for which the ar­chi­tects are famous char­ac­terises the build­ing right from the outside and is a re­cur­ring theme inside as well. The red-toned con­crete slabs have dif­fer­ent fin­ishes, cre­at­ing a lively facade. The sharp-edged tower at the corner gives the library a re­mark­able pres­ence. Cut out of the build­ing at an angle and clad in white with a tall glass front, the en­trance to the build­ing makes its pres­ence known. ‘The en­trance, with its dra­matic mass of con­crete, works like a funnel, drawing vis­i­tors into the build­ing,’ ar­chi­tect Peter Wilson elab­o­rates. The grand reading hall fea­tures ter­raced levels, nooks for retreat, larger and smaller spaces, ex­tend­ing the public city to the inside of the build­ing. The red for which the ar­chi­tects are famous char­ac­terises the build­ing right from the outside and is a re­cur­ring theme inside as well. The red-toned con­crete slabs have dif­fer­ent fin­ishes, cre­at­ing a lively facade.

The sharp-edged tower at the corner gives the library a re­mark­able pres­ence. Cut out of the build­ing at an angle and clad in white with a tall glass front, the en­trance to the build­ing makes its pres­ence known. ‘The en­trance, with its dra­matic mass of con­crete, works like a funnel, drawing vis­i­tors into the build­ing,’ ar­chi­tect Peter Wilson elab­o­rates. The grand reading hall fea­tures ter­raced levels, nooks for retreat, larger and smaller spaces, ex­tend­ing the public city to the inside of the build­ing.

Natural day­light floods into the reading hall. It comes through from the strik­ing north-fac­ing sky­lights, which allow lots of light in for reading, but no solar energy, which could damage the sen­si­tive in­ven­tory of books. The re­in­forced con­crete struc­ture of the build­ing remains exposed in some areas, like the office rooms, work­shops and cor­ri­dors.

In other rooms, white walls and wooden windows and doors con­trast with bold colours, like the blue floor of the reading hall or green seats. A high­light is the special reading room, which is com­pletely in red, where rare arte­facts can be ex­plored under su­per­vi­sion. Peter Wilson es­pe­cially ap­pre­ci­ates the smooth shape of the FSB 1144 handle used, which he called a ‘touch vector’. ‘The 1144, de­signed by Jasper Mor­ri­son, is a classic that does not lose its value over time. Its pleas­ing shape sits nicely in the hand and has a calming effect on both the eye and the spirit,’ Wilson says. Un­usu­ally but ef­fec­tively, the ar­chi­tects combine an alu­minium finish with black round roses. This com­bi­na­tion, which BOLLES+WILSON used in their design of the Münster City Library over 25 years ago already, has become part of their sig­na­ture. The con­trast sets the handle design apart from the rose in a dis­tinct aes­thetic. Object details

Building details

Photos: © Chris­t­ian Richters

Location

Biblioth?que nationale du Luxembourg

37d Avenue John F. Kennedy
1855 Lux­em­bourg
Lux­em­burg

Di­rec­tions

BESbswy