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Reading Room

• Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland

  The Library brief is large and the portion of the Park allocated to it is small. To meet the competition brief the building needs to be four storeys above ground level.

  It is the front line between the old Dublin of Joyce & O’Brian and the advancing developments of the Green Tiger.  Beyond the battlefront terraced streets have already given way to giant mixed-use developments.

• Haigh Terrace contains the Maritime Museum within the old Anglican Cathedral and sits two floors above the level of the site.

  Our proposal is to save the views and replace the Park over a Library that is spread over the entire site and is top-lit from a large elliptical dome made of golden ETFE.

• A broad ravine-like urban stairway is carved into the leveled ground and separates the Library from its smaller cultural centre creating a grand public descent towards the sea.

  En route openings to the Library and facilities appear within the landscaped facades. The roof of the Library is landscaped as an indigenous marshland that attracts birdlife and is accessed along timber boardwalks.

  The building blossoms in spring and wilts in the winter.

• The large volume beneath the elliptical dome is circled by 30 reading rooms per level. These spaces enclose a more private and sociably sized workgroup of about 20 readers each.

  Here the mood is of a private study cell. Circulation between reading rooms is along the galleried edge of the ellipse so movement is obvious and encourages serendipitous contact.

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