Zaha Hadid Architects - Library and Learning Center in Vienna

Friday, 19 December 2008 07:02

The University of Economics & Business, Vienna will build a new campus, (masterplan: BUSarchitecture) with the Library and Learning Center (LLC) in the centre of the campus.

The LLC provides a significant upgrade to the university’s services with workplaces, lounges and cloakrooms, library, language laboratory, training classrooms, administration offices, study services and central supporting services, copy shop, book shop, data center, cafeteria, event area, clubroom and auditorium.

In total, the LLC is approximately 28,000m2 (net) / 42.000m2 (gross). The maximum dimensions of the building are 136m length, 76m width and 30m height (5 floors)

Site plan

Sections and Elevartions

The new Library and Learning Centre rises as a polygonal block from the centre of the new university campus. The LLC’s design takes the form of a cube with both inclined and straight edges. The straight lines of the building’s exterior separate as they move inward, becoming curvilinear and fluid, generating a free‐formed interior canyon that serves as the central public plaza. All the other facilities of the LLC are housed within a single volume that also divides, becoming two separate ribbons that wind around each other to enclose this glazed gathering space.

“I am delighted to be working in Vienna as I have a close affiliation with the city. As a centre of research, the Library and Learning Centre is forum for the exchange of ideas. It is very exciting for us to be part of the University’s expansion.” states Zaha Hadid.

Rector of the University of Economics & Business, Christoph Badelt said “A library and learning center should be more than a mere library in the classical sense: it is a research and a service facility, a workplace and lounge, a place of communication and a traffic hub, at one and the same time. With its breathtaking architecture, the design by Zaha Hadid manages to combine all the key functions of study in a most wonderful way. It is a vision that embodies this innovative concept of a university."

Facts and Credits:

Competiton : Two phase competition with six competitors in the first phase and three in the second phase.
1st prize Zaha Hadid Architects, 2nd prize Morphosis , 3rd prize Prof. Hans Hollein
Other competitors: Studio Massimiliano Fuksas , Kada Wittfeld Studio
Start first phase: August 2008
Start second phase: October 2008
Decision: November 2008
Jury: Wolf D. Prix (head of jury) , Dietmar Eberle, Laura P. Spinadel (BUS Architekten, new campus masterplanner), Peter Ehrenberger, Sepp Frank, Brian Cody

Zaha Hadid Architects:
Design Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
Project Architect Cornelius Schlotthauer
Project Team Marc‐Philipp Nieberg, Kristoph Nowak, Enrico Kleinke, Stefan Rinnebach, Niels Kespohl, Jan Hübener, Romy Heiland, Richard Baumgartner