Library of Economic Sciences – University of Hamburg
The Library of Economic Sciences is situated on the first floor of a ’seventies building on the University of Hamburg campus. A clear zoning of the individual library sections was central to the thinking that went into the redesigning of the library. The aim was to offer its users unambiguous and immediate orientation.
In order to create an acoustically quiet and concentrated working atmosphere, ’loud’ group areas were spatially separated from the ’quiet’ individual work areas. Along the outer facades towards the campus, the individual work areas were assembled into rows with access-point lighting and Internet connections on the long reading tables. The areas for group workplaces are situated on the opposite side of the building leading to the interior court. The bookshelves are placed between them to act as ’silencers’.
Learning cubicles, research places with online public-access catalogues and discussion rooms are like limbs leading off from the sides of the large library space.
The information and lending desk forms the centre and the convergence point of the library. Its striking shape and light-studded ceiling with its integrated sound absorbers are visible from a great distance. Two smaller information desks form non-central meeting points in the visitor-intensive areas. The newspaper reading zone differs in character markedly from the other workplaces. In the reading lounge, one sits in comfortable, laid-back armchairs and attends to one’s reading in a relaxed atmosphere.