The Strasbourg National University Library located in the heart of the city is a prestigious building that dates from the German period (1871). The attitude adopted for its rehabilitation is to scrupulously respect the monumental architecture. The project therefore accentuates the characteristic mouldings on the façade and magnifies the dome by making it visible from all the lower levels.
Use of a specific architectural vocabulary clearly distinguishes the new spaces from the existing structure. The three main spaces—reception, circulation, reading area—therefore have a marked visual treatment that dialogues with the monumental architecture.
The intervention involves removing interfering elements that prevent the quality of the original volumes from being seen, and constructing vertical circulation systems and new functional spaces. The aim of removal is to make the volume beneath the dome accessible and visible to the public, non-readers included. This exceptional volume embodies the library’s identity.
In order to offer an open space with an atmosphere conducive to reading, working and conviviality, four levels are created around the grand atrium. This replaces the five current ones and creates comfortable ceiling heights for the reader areas available to readers. Vertical circulation cores are placed at each of the four angles of the new levels. These angles correspond to the four former courtyards and become the nerve centres of the new library’s operation, thereby freeing the major public volumes from technical and security contingencies. This set-up gives the staff greater comfort of use and the public levels greater visual comfort.