Project 25
Architecture
COTTBUS LIBRARY COTTBUS DE / 2004
Typography
HERZOG & DE MEURON ( BASEL CH ) HERZOG & DE MEURON
Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron conceived the Cottbus Library as a stand-alone structure. As a landmark, it self-confidently projects the spirit of the young university; at the same time, the building — among other reasons, due to its conspicuous biomorphic form — connects with its surroundings in manifold ways. The architects emphasize that the structure was derived from an analysis of different sequences of movement within the building while also referring to the image of an amoeba. These unicellular organisms do not have a fixed form but change their shape constantly by forming pseudopodia (plasma appendages) that enable them to move. The image is a fitting one because the appearance of the building also changes under different light conditions and according to which side one approaches it from. At first glance the building seems closed to its surroundings; its multiple levels, for instance, are not discernible by day and only become visible when the building is illuminated at night. The entrance is located in a cleft cut into the smooth, rounded skin, and although reduced to a minimum, is still distinctive. The glass facade has been printed on both sides with a typographic ornament that recalls the irregular grid of letters printed on the inside of banking envelopes designed to prevent the contents from being discerned through scanning. The effect of this pattern, which comprises several superimposed layers of different texts, languages, alphabets, and fonts, is simultaneously to homogenize and dissolve the structure on several levels. The pattern breaks up the reflection from the glass, softens the harsh impression created by the material, and thereby supports the flowing-closed softness of the structural form. The letters have been rendered illegible. They are detached from the text lines and starkly abstracted. Reduced to their pictorial expressiveness, they adapt to the architecture while at the same time, as an all-over, to some extent dissolving its tectonics. Even though there is nothing concrete to be read, the facade refers to the interior of the building, subtly commenting on its use as a library. Through the interweaving of diverse linguistic elements, the curtain wall becomes a kind of meta-text that points to the immense knowledge stored in libraries and serving the accumulation of human knowledge. Whereas linguistic confusion prevented the completion of the Tower of Babel, here it becomes an actually built expression of a globalized knowledge society.
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