University Library, Zadar
The University Library was meant to kick-off the development of the new campus at the very heart of the city. I want to stress the symbolic significance of the metamorphosis of the area from the military barracks (off the limits) to a highly accessible urban node. The masterplan (by CiE) proposed a central park scheme. The competitors were free to choose the actual site.
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The uncertainty of the location – we anticipated the possibility of its change in the course of the building’s conception – forced us to opt for a generic solution (one that would fit in any of the potential sites available). This was, of course, a risky strategy. To compensate for the ‘lack of specificity’ we carefully negotiated the building's relation to the ground. It is thus possible to argue that, although the library is somewhat ‘indifferent’ to its surroundings horizontally, it has a very particular way of occupying the site vertically.
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The overall scheme is rather banal: the main common space (reading rooms, etc), coextensive with the park, is sandwiched between the underground parking and elevated stacks of books. The connection is provided via peripheral sets of staircases and elevators leaving the core of the building uninterrupted. This has introduced an implicit spiral movement along the edge, with the effect of a ‘shear’ between the interior and the exterior, throwing them out of joint.
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