Year: 2006
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Client: Minister of Culture, Czech Republic
Size: 50,000 m²
Status: international competition
Structural engineer: AKT
Environmental engineer: Basler&Hofmann
Facade engineer: PPEngineering
In Association with AA Dunkel
Our proposal for the National Library of the Czech Republic consists of two distinct entities: the combined mass of library stacks and offices, and the volume containing the public spaces of the library. The ‘waffle’ serves as a means of storage and collection management; the transparent plinth accommodates consultation spaces and the visiting public. The mass of stacks acts as storage for environmental performance stabilising the internal temperature cycle throughout the year. The system works with no active heating or cooling.