Saturday, May 27, 2006

Helsingborg Library

This library is linked to a new station that will function as a centre for a new district that will be built in the coastal city of Helsingborg, Sweden.
Due to the strategic site, a blank space between two segregated areas, this building has to be something special.

The plan is quite simple; a big, shining craterlike excavation in the centre of the floor plan will be where most of the books are, stacked in transparent bookshelves.
From here you can also access to the visual media room where you can play video games, listen to lectures, look at exhibitions and so on.

Around the crater is also some bookshelves and such, but this area is mostly designated for listening to music, reading fast-food literature, comics, newspapers.

A mighty chunk of forest in the north of the building makes up a dramatic backdrop for the whole library. As you enter from the north, you have to pass this in a Hans and Gretel kind of way, a transformation to imagination.

Mesh pathways leaps out in this forest from the second floor and from the roof terrace.
Secluded spaces in the treetops where you can get lost in a book, maybe Moby Dick?
The pathways connect to the building on the other side of the road.
A gigantic botanic garden can be reached from here as well.
Cocoons of strengthen opaque rubber penetrates the roof to light up the interior, and to make interesting places on the roof to hang out.
When the weather and season permits, the whole roof functions as a outdoor cinema, or a concert scene.

If you enter the library from the south, the forest will be most present, but if you enter from the north, the cocoons and the white light will be the dominating factor.
A kind of high-tech vs. nature, tradition vs. exploration.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

School of Rock

This school is a part of a building that will contain a station, a library, some shopping and restaurants.

From the underground station you reach an enormous foyer.
Some fixed functions as a ticket office, restaurant, café and such, is located close to the escalators down to the trains.
But the rest of the foyer is empty.
The floor is polished concrete, the roof is clad with mirrors, crystal chandeliers and Persian rugs is scattered throughout the space as well, but besides from that, its empty.
This will function as a gigantic living room for the entire city core.
Everything can take place here, circus, concerts, exhibitions, marketplaces, temporary food courts, flee markets.
What’s important is that this area isn’t fixed by commercial interests, but rather changing itself all the time.
This will contribute energy to a dynamic inner city and to connect the city’s different parts, the segregated North with the South, the existing city with the new extensions.
A quality building on a strategic site.

On the second and the third floor is a school located.
On the weekends can other functions take over due to the flexible plan.
Mess hall, nightclubs, exhibitions.
A lot of storage space handles the fast switches.

The school is equipped with a fantastic school yard on the roof, a botanic garden with some scattered play areas in concrete.
The garden is also accessible for public.