Library Expansion and Restoration Hall Pontifical Lateran University - King Roselli Architetti
Client: Pontifical Lateran University, Bishop Rino Fisichella Rector
Project: Expansion of the Library and the restoration of Pius IX Aula Magna Benedetto XVI
Start Project 2003
Home works: September 2004
Term work: October 2006
Construction Cost: Euro 7m
Internal Cost: Euro 1m
Aula Magna Area: 660 m2
Library Area: 2000 m2
Design and Art Direction: Riccardo Roselli, Roselli King Architetti
Project Manager: Andrea Ricci
Contributors: Giandomenico Florio, Ulich Grosse, Christina Hoffmann, Arianna Nobile, Enrica Testi, Katia Scarioni, Toyohiko Yamaguchi.
Photos: Santi Caleca (SC), Joseph King (JK), King Roselli Architetti (KR)
To draft the new Library of the Pontifical Lateran University, the Rector Monsignor Rino Fisichella had clearly expressed its intention of making reading and consultation of the central texts of the University.
The university maintains an outstanding collection of nearly 600 thousand books, some of whom belong to the sixteenth century, most texts on philosophy, theology, canon law and primarily academic courses. Many are stored in underground stays, recently restructured and equipped with fire fighting systems, humidity and temperature controls. 25 thousand ancient texts are kept in a protected environment, in order to preserve the state of conservation.
Originally the Reading Room of the Library is located on the first floor in the space that now houses the foyer of the Aula Magna and offices.
The new reading room and archive works of reference books are now arranged in the new building, near the heart of the University and wider access to the main corridor on the first floor. The reading room sde at first scattered in various parts of the University, are now concentrated in a single volume, which are stored in 70,000 volumes and 750 publications, arranged in a six-story tower, compartmentalized and protected from fire.
The siting of the building refers to a requirement of the Rector, is the centrality of the activity of the library, archive and reading rooms. Externally, the new volume is prepared with a block of pre-existing classrooms. While the new building is discreet in its alignment with the existing building, as reflected in the use of the brick facade, the new Library strongly reaffirms its modern volume suspended in the contrast of light and shade created in cuts full and empty.
Two immediate effects: On the right. The Wings Hall said / says more evidence of its importance and difference of the reading rooms. The surface of the travertine facade, the greater height, the internal volume, separately, gains importance. To the left of the Library, the entrance of the university, restored ten years ago, is more explicit, more meaningful. Loggia in the pre-existing stone was demolished to make room for the new library, and maintaining the entrance to the main floor of the University, it is secondary, subject to a hierarchical master volume.
The University is open to the Library through a series of volumes that connect the windows. A stairway leads to the base of the first floor of the University to the first level of the new library, where the large foyer is the area of consultation and catalog information, the reading room for teachers and the bank distribution books.
A six level tower Bookstore added 3 levels of the ramp where you will find rest with reading tables. Each slide defines two levels of Torre. The height of the floor of the Library Tower is reduced to a minimum, something to avoid installation of very high with the consequent problem of the use of ladders to access libros.Los six levels are connected by an open stairway between the containment wall Librería de la Torre and facade covered with books in sight. The thickness of the structure, transform the tower into a large bookstore. The slope of the ramps connecting with the Library Tower cuts irregular facade, creating truly (not just the effect) of a game that float on light volumes. Seen from the outside, day, the setbacks net windows, concentrates the light in the sky and blocked 4 columns bearing hardly visible. At night the three main blocks of light float planes.
The ramps are not only suspended in a vacuum, but are defined in the light arriving from a vertically focused shafts, and a light horizontal cuts from the external facade. On ramps, platforms host table reading. Outbreaks of ambient light are embedded in furniture. The variation of light during the day are more obvious here. The light of morning comes directly from the perforations on the front, being cold, supplemented by the shafts of daylight, warming increasingly towards noon, and cooling towards the evening, but when the light goes dark, it is reflected in the surrounding buildings and reflected into the building. The apparent movement of ramps, bookshelves and tables, adds the dynamic play of light.
The bottom of the ramp is made of metal that make up the complex and irregular geometry inclined. The original design of the building is a structural response, patient and knowledgeable engineer Andrea Imbrend with a set of architectural contributions: use the smallest possible number of columns, to reduce the thickness of foundations thing to keep the best condition of the remains of a Roman villa, along with meeting the requirements of seismic standards and antincendio recently implemented.
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