Integrating New Functions into the Historic Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar, Germany

Despite a fire in the library, the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar opened its extension in February 2005 on schedule. The new Study Centre covers an area five times larger than the corresponding rooms in the old library and offers readers 120,000 volumes on open access. The new underground stacks constructed at the same time offer good preservation storage conditions for up to one million volumes. It is a great advantage that an underground connection integrated the new build with the old and eliminated any potential division of the library. The new Book Cube with its clear geometry is the centre of the diversely proportioned group of buildings and a modern counterpart to the Rococo hall of the original green palace. The four internal walls of the Cube are designed as multi-storey bookshelves with galleries above and below ground. A sequence of underground rooms connects the Cube to the historic library building. It has been possible to create an integrated entity combining the new and the old, not by imitation, but by treating the whole ensemble