Location: Wrocław, Grunwaldzki Square

Area: 11.809 m²

Project: 2007

Authors – in cooperation with Atelier Loegler: Romuald Loegler – Atelier Loegler, Anna Pszonak, Bogdan Pszonak, Anna Rybowicz, Leszek Sakowicz, Krzysztof Trochimowicz, Rafał Kiszko – model

Honorable mention in the architecture competition

The keynote of this building is a result of searching for the passive solutions for preserving the bibliotheca from direct rays of sunlight and leveling effect of overheating the insides during the summertime at the same time opening the building towards the south- onto the public space of the campus- Professors Axis. The suggested hi-tech architecture resulting from insolation analysis during different daytimes and seasons of the year is expressing the technical character as well as university’s ambitions for establishing a kind of scenery resembling the library’s program.

The angled building solid together with the roof extended towards the south, effectively protects frontal glass elevation from the direct rays of sun in the summertime. Lower, spring and autumn sunlight scatter the horizontal glass blinds with ceramic overprint at different pitch depending on the sunlight angle of incidence and preferences of functional zones adjoined to the southern façade. In winter, low sun easily warms up the building’s inside. From the north , glass façade diverges from the walls of existing buildings on which vertical gardens were suggested. The last level, where the bibliotheca with a free access was located, is cut off from the outdoor glass walls establishing a bridge of knowledge between the eastern and the western wing. Entirely transparent opposite facades reveal library’s inner life together with the technical structure and the building’s equipment.