The hybrid building merges the library and botanical garden into a spatial whole, a symbiosis of design and high technology. It is located in Burggarten in Vienna – the historical imperial private garden of the Habsburg family, between the Austrian National Library and Palmenhaus.
The Austrian National Library is a lavish Baroque building that housed the imperial library in 1721-1918. Today, it is a museum featuring the grandeur of the Habsburg dynasty as well as a collection of historic books. Palmenhaus is a greenhouse reconstructed for the private plant collection of Franz Joseph I in 1882. Today, it is a home to a popular restaurant with the exotic palm trees and butterflies creating a particular atmosphere.
The new hybrid library with its particular ambience includes a digital media archive and a rare books collection. It is a new type of social environment providing various atmospheres and conditions for reading, work and research. The exotic plants in glass containers exude biogases that will be turned into green energy. As an interface between the user, information and nature, energy design provides various microclimatic conditions by means of filtrating natural light as well as indoor climate with regulated air moisture, thus creating also meditative and therapeutic environments. In summer, the reading and work areas can be continued to the park thus expanding the limits, atmosphere and functions of the garden-library.
PUBLISHED: Maja 107 (winter 2022) with main topic Evolution or Revolution?
SEE ALSO:
Speculative Project. Los Angeles Cultural Hypertrophy – Sille Pihlak
Speculative Project. The Vision of Heliorg in Harjuoru – Villem Tomiste
Speculative Project. Digital Park – Lauri Eltermaa
Speculative Project. Dark Matter – Ahti Sepsivart
Speculative Project. The Arctic Nature Defence Forces – Mari Hunt
