University Library, Osijek

The urban elements on which the architecture of our University library building in Osijek is based are very specific. They are actually continued affirmation of the existing urban solution of the university campus. In that ‘separated’ space, positioned on the east from the center of Osijek and not far from the bank of Drava River, the new library building will appropriate an important, or maybe even the most important field of this urban ‘chess board’.

By ‘freeing’ the ground floor and lifting the reading room in the air, we allow that all campus roads cross in the library hall. The hall thus becomes the ‘heated’ part of the square, place for ‘hanging out’, space of all those functions that do not fall into the scope of the library (congress and small hall, exhibit spaces, book store etc.). The surface of the hall became part of the campus itself and at the same time the domination of the pedestrians is increased.

After we had ‘freed’ the ground floor by lifting the reading room ‘in the air’, we made upstairs a space of opposing characteristics, which, unlike the one in the hall, is a space turned toward itself. The reading room is, naturally, not closed literally, but it is surrounded with a ‘wall’ of books which are surrounded by offices. The Venetian blinds protect everything from exposure to too much sun, and they are in some places more opened or more closed, depending on the purpose of the space which is immediately behind them. In order to illuminate the dominantly introvert space of the reading room, we introduced a system of atriums that secure natural lightening and air conditioning. At the same time they separate the big reading space into smaller entireties. The roofs of the atriums are green spaces and they represent ‘meadows’ of their own kind in the ‘forest’ of books.