March 9, 2015 Technical Library

Monday, March 9, Technical Library

Construction of the current building began in 2006 and was completed in January 2009.

The Technical Library does not look like a regular library. Ondrej Hofmeister was one of the architects of this building. He was chosen to be the architect because he participated in a contest and ended up winning. The whole library is rounded. When you walk in you see how all of the wires are exposed. Ondřej  explained it was designed to be a teaching and learning tool. 

This images shows the unique pattern and colors on the floor. The only color added in the structure is on the floor.

It has this warehouse feel. As you continue to look around you see the seats are red and white and in the shape of the molecules. Ondrej said he liked how you could move the seats around. Walking up you see the floor which is a rainbow of colors. This changes the mood of the library. With these colors it radiates around to brighten up the grey walls and ceilings. Also it has these drawings on the walls.  These were put here by a Romanian artist. 

 

I thought it was unique how the words were not in Czech but in English. These drawings were almost cartoon-like. Ondrej wanted a warm and quite feel to this library. His design allowed the air to circulate throughout the building so the building would be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. He also had these films put around the building which would block some of the light coming in so it was not as bright. This also helped with heating in cooling since the entire building was just windows it would be extremely hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

He was able to be resilient by raising all of the generators just in case of flooding. He also created a system just in case of a fire. He put walls that would drop to block of areas so the fire would not spread and also vents in the ceiling that would pull out the smoke to allow people to evacuate.  Ondrej  took many factors into creating this structure. He was able to create not only a unique design but a resilient building.