The National Library of Luxembourg - a project with a history: Bolles + Wilson won the corresponding architectural competition back in 2003, but construction began only in 2014, on a completely different site. This is the New Regular Building Zone on John F. Kennedy Avenue. The fact that the building is of a compact volume is connected both with a small area and with the desire to make the most of the properties of the thermal mass of the building.
The five-storey book depository acts as the core of the building: it is a rectangular volume occupied on top and on the sides by open access shelves and reading rooms. Its exterior walls are covered with gabions (the architects' proposed “bastion” image), while the rest of the façade is clad in red prefabricated concrete panels. Despite their common origin, they differ in shade and texture due to different types of processing - sandblasting and water jetting devices, acid.
The main entrance from Kennedy Avenue received a contrasting white design with glazing in a niche: inside there is a foyer with a cafe, and above - rooms for seminars and conferences.
In addition to the compact volume of the building, concrete and gabions, materials in the interior design were also selected depending on their heat capacity, and the cradle-to-cradle principle was also taken into account. Other eco-components of the project include cooling and heating of premises using geothermal heat pumps, solar panels on the roof, active use of natural light, a roof structure made of wooden beams of a multilayer structure, where air circulation is provided.
The total area of the building is 39,000 m2, the budget is 75 million euros. The library houses 2.5 million items of storage - books, magazines, media materials, etc. The new building was placed on a special postage stamp issued by Post Luxembourg in May 2019.
