2012 Charlotte NellesCharlotte Nelles - A new book stock in Sart-Tilman
The book stock
The site is located in the heart of the University campus of the Sart Tilman, based on the American campus model. The master plan, designed by Claude Strebelle, in the middle of the sixties, is composed of low typologies buildings integrated in the nature.
The book stock takes part in an operation of an urbanistic restructuration to increase conviviality and vitality. The building plot is a wasteland on which we find the faculty of geography.
The client puts the emphasis on the symbolic character of the programme, a stock of the patrimonial books of the University (45 linear kilometers of books, precious and hyper-precious reserves), workshops for the sanitary treatment of books, offices and public reading rooms.
Preserving plot’s vegetal character and enjoying the marvellous view on the Ourthe’s valley, the tower defines a new landmark on the campus.
The public can easily identify the different functions : the workshops for the sanitary treatment and the management offices surround the reception on the ground floor and the lift to the reading rooms opens views on the different floors containing the book shelves.
An hermetic skin made of concrete protects the book stock. Its texture, partly gilt, reminds bookbindings. The ground and upper floors differ from this mass by colonnades, opening these functions towards the external view and keeping the clear understanding of the volume.
The classical square plan evokes the book’s permanence. The structure, composed by decreasing diameter columns, establishes a hierarchy between spaces and flexibility for next decades.
The site is located in the heart of the University campus of the Sart Tilman, based on the American campus model. The master plan, designed by Claude Strebelle, in the middle of the sixties, is composed of low typologies buildings integrated in the nature.
The book stock takes part in an operation of an urbanistic restructuration to increase conviviality and vitality. The building plot is a wasteland on which we find the faculty of geography.
The client puts the emphasis on the symbolic character of the programme, a stock of the patrimonial books of the University (45 linear kilometers of books, precious and hyper-precious reserves), workshops for the sanitary treatment of books, offices and public reading rooms.
Preserving plot’s vegetal character and enjoying the marvellous view on the Ourthe’s valley, the tower defines a new landmark on the campus.
The public can easily identify the different functions : the workshops for the sanitary treatment and the management offices surround the reception on the ground floor and the lift to the reading rooms opens views on the different floors containing the book shelves.
An hermetic skin made of concrete protects the book stock. Its texture, partly gilt, reminds bookbindings. The ground and upper floors differ from this mass by colonnades, opening these functions towards the external view and keeping the clear understanding of the volume.
The classical square plan evokes the book’s permanence. The structure, composed by decreasing diameter columns, establishes a hierarchy between spaces and flexibility for next decades.
