The Stockholm City Library

Urban Concept

The Asplund Library is put on a stage. The new addition acts as a backdrop for the existing, historically and architecturally highly significant library. The addition takes a secondary role and enhances and supports the importance of the existing building. The formal language of the new addition is calm and restrained and the colour scheme subdued. The arrangement of the building volumes intensifies the visibility and the approach for both the existing and the new library.

The Ground Plane

The new ground plane is one continuous, slightly sloped surface. It forms the setting for the Asplund building and the new extension. The plaza marks the main entrance to the library. All existing trees will remain. The plain treatment of the plaza strengthens the geometry and the expression of the Asplund library and the new extension.

The Building

The calm expression and the subdued colour of the new addition do not compete with the strong geometries of the existing library. Depending on the angle of the beholder, the façade is either much closed or more open. Public gestures such as entrances, restaurants and 24h zones are expressed with deliberate cuts on ground level, “lifting the curtain” of the building. In order to set the stage for the Asplund building the new addition does not make any formal reference to the existing structures. In opposition the orange colour and the strong geometries of the Asplund building the new addition makes colour- reference to the rock formations Stockholm is built on.