Stockholm Public Library 1920-28 Gunnar Asplund Stockholm
1.1 In the early 1900s, the concept of a public library was being adopted by the City of Stockholm in Sweden. Before that, all libraries in Sweden were private
1.2 Gunnar Asplund was initially hired to help determine the requirements for a public library and then prepare a competition open to all architects. After researching all over the world, he became very informed, and the building committee realized the strength that he had and decided he would be the most suitable architect for the job.
2.1 The site rests beside a steep hill, which influenced the designs of Asplund from the beginning as he did not want the library to be overpowered by its environment; thus he decided on a compact, orange-colored mass.
2.2 It is in the peripheral area of downtown at the conjunction of commercial street and naturalistic landscape. He also designed the surrounding area around the library.
3.2 stands aloof on its base, with a ramp cut through to the main entrance, further dramatizing the passage into the building.
3.1 The classic style of the architecture is revealed in the neoclassical composition. Reading rooms form a square with an open courtyard, which is placed with a round central lending hall. The scale of the hall is massive to create monumental space.
5.1 he definitely learnt a lot from the Minnesota U Library and the Michigan U L, both orthogonally planned, but eith a central hall and side reading rooms.
3.2 Once you mount the final stairway, marked by high walls of polished black stucco, the central room would reveal its glory. Vestibule is intentionally built narrow to increase the dramatic transition of scale to the main hall.
4.1 The hall became a tall cylinder drum despite it was designed to be a dome. The low altitude of the sun in Sweden limits the sunlight to be lateral, so the clerestory is better to get lateral light than openings on dome.
3.3 The children's library is located on the ground floor in one of the side wings. Here, Asplund commissioned a painter to paint a mural of discovery, adventure, and fantasy in the reading niche.
6.1 major cultural buildings have monumental roles in the city: have duty to celebrate their community purposes, also are the key landmarks.
Viipuri Town Library 1927-35 Alvar Aalto Vyborg, Russia
1.1 Finnish people there were not used to the democracy of having a public library, since Viipuri had been under Swedish control for years.
1.2 When Aalto won the competition to design Viipuri’s city library in 1927, Viipuri was at the time in Finnish sovereignity. Later this Finnish city was annexed by USSR, and changed name to Vyborg.
2.1 At the heart of the city, located in a park just behind Viipuri’s stoic, neo-Gothic cathedral.
5.1 Aalto's design went through a profound transformation from the original Nordic Classicism style (owing much to Gunnar Asplund, especially his Stockholm City Library) to the severely functionalist building, completed eight years later in a purist modernist style.
3.1 consists of two simple rectangular blocks that slide dynamically past one another: the taller volume contained all the library functions, while the lower one had offices and auditorium.
3.2 lending and reading areas are at diiferent levels.
4.1 The interior was suffused by a gentle, shadowless light filtered down from a grid of conical lens skylights. The depth of the roof structure ensures that no direct sun light is allowed to disturb the readers.
4.1 The glazed roof in the external stair hall was replaced by glazed side-wall for the same low altitude of the sun reason.
4.2 The steps also have the same finishing as the floor, so that the stairs are like an adaptation of the floor, rather than a separate element. The complex of stairs and changes of level repeatedly evoke that basic experience of landscape.
3.3 another major space is the auditorium, which is lit by a continuous glazing overlooking the park.
4.4 The undulating acoustic timber ceiling is made of Karelian pine, which is a regional material. The library is considered as one of the manifestations of Regional Modernism, for Aalto’s use of natural materials. The use of wood was first introduced into an otherwise modernist setting of concrete, white stucco, glass, and steel. It was also something already familiar in some Finnish churches, such as Petajavesi Church, that use timber to imitate stone vaults. Aalto might got inspired there.
1.1 In the early 1900s, the concept of a public library was being adopted by the City of Stockholm in Sweden. Before that, all libraries in Sweden were private
1.2 Gunnar Asplund was initially hired to help determine the requirements for a public library and then prepare a competition open to all architects. After researching all over the world, he became very informed, and the building committee realized the strength that he had and decided he would be the most suitable architect for the job.
2.1 The site rests beside a steep hill, which influenced the designs of Asplund from the beginning as he did not want the library to be overpowered by its environment; thus he decided on a compact, orange-colored mass.
2.2 It is in the peripheral area of downtown at the conjunction of commercial street and naturalistic landscape. He also designed the surrounding area around the library.
3.2 stands aloof on its base, with a ramp cut through to the main entrance, further dramatizing the passage into the building.
3.1 The classic style of the architecture is revealed in the neoclassical composition. Reading rooms form a square with an open courtyard, which is placed with a round central lending hall. The scale of the hall is massive to create monumental space.
5.1 he definitely learnt a lot from the Minnesota U Library and the Michigan U L, both orthogonally planned, but eith a central hall and side reading rooms.
3.2 Once you mount the final stairway, marked by high walls of polished black stucco, the central room would reveal its glory. Vestibule is intentionally built narrow to increase the dramatic transition of scale to the main hall.
4.1 The hall became a tall cylinder drum despite it was designed to be a dome. The low altitude of the sun in Sweden limits the sunlight to be lateral, so the clerestory is better to get lateral light than openings on dome.
3.3 The children's library is located on the ground floor in one of the side wings. Here, Asplund commissioned a painter to paint a mural of discovery, adventure, and fantasy in the reading niche.
6.1 major cultural buildings have monumental roles in the city: have duty to celebrate their community purposes, also are the key landmarks.
Viipuri Town Library 1927-35 Alvar Aalto Vyborg, Russia
1.1 Finnish people there were not used to the democracy of having a public library, since Viipuri had been under Swedish control for years.
1.2 When Aalto won the competition to design Viipuri’s city library in 1927, Viipuri was at the time in Finnish sovereignity. Later this Finnish city was annexed by USSR, and changed name to Vyborg.
2.1 At the heart of the city, located in a park just behind Viipuri’s stoic, neo-Gothic cathedral.
5.1 Aalto's design went through a profound transformation from the original Nordic Classicism style (owing much to Gunnar Asplund, especially his Stockholm City Library) to the severely functionalist building, completed eight years later in a purist modernist style.
3.1 consists of two simple rectangular blocks that slide dynamically past one another: the taller volume contained all the library functions, while the lower one had offices and auditorium.
3.2 lending and reading areas are at diiferent levels.
4.1 The interior was suffused by a gentle, shadowless light filtered down from a grid of conical lens skylights. The depth of the roof structure ensures that no direct sun light is allowed to disturb the readers.
4.1 The glazed roof in the external stair hall was replaced by glazed side-wall for the same low altitude of the sun reason.
4.2 The steps also have the same finishing as the floor, so that the stairs are like an adaptation of the floor, rather than a separate element. The complex of stairs and changes of level repeatedly evoke that basic experience of landscape.
3.3 another major space is the auditorium, which is lit by a continuous glazing overlooking the park.
4.4 The undulating acoustic timber ceiling is made of Karelian pine, which is a regional material. The library is considered as one of the manifestations of Regional Modernism, for Aalto’s use of natural materials. The use of wood was first introduced into an otherwise modernist setting of concrete, white stucco, glass, and steel. It was also something already familiar in some Finnish churches, such as Petajavesi Church, that use timber to imitate stone vaults. Aalto might got inspired there.
