ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler

ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler | Features | Archinect
2016/09/03 0:29
Guy Erlich ~ Sample for two wooden walls 26 feet long each
Editorial & News
Stay architecturally enlightened!
Features
News
Like Archinect on Facebook.
Events
Like 498K
Competitions
Share
Employment
Sign up to our mailing list.
Community
Your Email Address
Academia
About
Login / Join
ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler
Global Edition
Tweet
Archinect
submit
Share
Dec 7 '12
Like 40
Share
Follow
Filter by Category:
Architectural Issues
Buildings
Culture
Architects
Academia
More
Search Features
Main facade of the Folkwang Library from the courtyard (Photo: Stefan Mller)
ShowCase is an on-going feature series on Archinect, presenting exciting new

work from designers representing all creative fields and all geographies.
We are always accepting nominations for upcoming ShowCase features - if you
would like to suggest a project, please send us a message.
Project Description from Max Dudler:

Folkwang University of the Arts is home to one of the largest musicological collections in Germany. Until now,
its inventory of approximately 190,000 items of sheet music, sound recordings, images, books and other
media has been stored in various archives and libraries across the region. But now, musicological items from
three institutions - Folkwang University, the former Library of Musicology at the Ruhr University Bochum as
http://archinect.com/features/article/62937991/showcase-folkwang-library-by-max-dudler
1/23
2016/09/03 0:29
well as the music education department of the University Duisberg-Essen - have been brought together under
a single roof, in a new building designed by Swiss-born architect Max Dudler. Situated on the Werden
campus, the library was inaugurated at the end of September 2012.
Main facade from the courtyard at night (Photo: Stefan Mller)
Folkwang University of the Arts is North Rhine Westphalias college of art and music. Its main campus is
housed in the former Benedictine abbey of St. Ludgerus in Essen-Werden, situated in the southern Ruhr
Valley. The small 8th century site was extended into a princely baroque residence in the 18th century,
arranged around a magnificent courtyard (Cour dhonneur). The construction of the new library on the south
side of the courtyard by Max Dudler replaces a 19th century military hospital building demolished in 1969. In
2006, Max Dudler won the design competition organized by the Duisburg branch of the Building and Real
Estate Management Authority, North Rhine Westphalia. The project was generously supported by the Alfried
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation.
In 1811, while under French occupation, a prison was set up in Werden Abbey. The Prussians extended this
and erected a hospital building on the south side of the courtyard. Upon the demolition of the hospital
building, the remaining ensemble of buildings looked unbalanced. Without reproducing the original shape of
the prison, the new building encloses this side of the courtyard with its voluminous crystalline structure. The
new buildings eastern side adjoins the so-called administrative wing of the old abbey. The volume of the new
building corresponds approximately to that of the Prussian wing across the courtyard.
2/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Detail of facade with photographic work by Stefan Mller (Photo: Stefan Mller)
3/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Detail of facade overlooking Klemensborn (Photo: Stefan Mller)
Folkwang Library was conceived as a monolithic body built atop the level base of an old rough stone wall.
Max Dudlers concept for the building is based on the idea of the museum showcase: An exterior shell
protecting the valuable contents within. The functional areas are grouped around the reading room, which lies
at the center of the building. The book shelves are arranged in strict order around this room, thereby lending
scale and structure to the building as a whole. There are two entrances to the library: The main entrance is
from the courtyard via a flight of external steps, designed to approximate the style of the entrances to the
other buildings leading off from the courtyard. The librarys other entrance on the Klemensborn serves as an
emergency exit. Lending desks, media cubicles, an administration area and cloakroom are situated on the
ground floor; the reading room on the first floor. The compact archives are housed in the librarys basement.
4/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Rear facade from Klemensborn (Photo: Stefan Mller)
New building with main building of the Folkwang University of the Arts (Photo: Stefan Mller)
The design of the buildings facade was developed in collaboration with the photographer Stefan Mller.
Every pane of glass in the facade depicts a large format close-up of a quarry. These photographs reproduce
the unhewn stone in its original size. The photographic works were applied directly onto the glazing using a
special technique. In keeping with the elemental meaning of the number twelve in music, twelve motives were
pieced together into an overall composition. As with the scagliola technique of the Renaissance used to
create stucco marbling, this special photographic technique creates the illusion of the facade being fashioned
from the stone material itself. At the same time, a tension is created between the imagery of the textured
stone and the flat surface of the glass, reminiscent of the historical sgraffito technique, whereby a graphic
embossing is etched into a smooth plaster surface. The new buildings smooth glass surfaces create the
perfect impression of a polished monolith. But this is called into question by the translucency of the buildings
5/23
2016/09/03 0:29
exterior, thereby playfully breaking the boundaries both from inside and out. Silhouettes of people can be
seen beyond the facade. The interior is bathed in a soft, filtered light. In the evening, the building illuminates
the courtyard outside.
New building with main building of the Folkwang University of the Arts (Photo: Stefan Mller)
6/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View from the courtyard with side wing and library (Photo: Stefan Mller)
South side of library (Photo: Stefan Mller)
The building comprises a reinforced concrete skeleton with concrete cores to provide stiffening. The glass
facade is attached to the buildings projecting structural slabs using the mullion-transom system. The concrete
pillars are shaped and positioned according to the dimensions of the book shelves. The pillars are clad in
cherry wood, which is also used for the shelving in the reading room. Not all the pillars are load-bearing.
Some are used as part of an inert air-conditioning system. With the ventilation pipes being channeled directly
through the reinforced concrete ceilings, this building materials potential as a heat sink is thereby put to good
use. Through coupling this with a heat exchanger, an innovative contribution to energy efficiency is achieved.
The library furnishings such as its tables, chairs and shelves were also designed by Max Dudler.
7/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View through the library of the facade (Photo: Stefan Mller)
8/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View of the reading room (Photo: Stefan Mller)
9/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View of the reading room (Photo: Stefan Mller)
10/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Work space overlooking the reading room (Photo: Stefan Mller)
11/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Work space (Photo: Stefan Mller)
12/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View from between the library shelves (Photo: Stefan Mller)
13/23
2016/09/03 0:29
View of the facade from inside (Photo: Stefan Mller)
14/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Library shelves and view of the facade from inside (Photo: Stefan Mller)
15/23
2016/09/03 0:29
A staircase in the library (Photo: Stefan Mller)
View of the facade from inside (Photo: Stefan Mller)
Drawings:
16/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Site plan
First floor plan extended
17/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Basement floor plan
First floor plan
18/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Second floor plan
Third floor plan
Fourth floor plan
19/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Roof plan
Elevation North
Elevation East
20/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Elevation South
Section A
Project Details:
Building Name: Folkwang Library
Location: Essen-Werden, Germany
Client: Duisburg branch of the Building and Real Estate Management Authority, North Rhine Westphalia;
Supported by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
User: Folkwang University of the Arts
Building Volumes: 982 m2 usable floor area; 1,707 m2 gross surface area; 5,603 m3 gross building volume
Design and Construction Period:
Design commenced: 2006
Construction commenced: 2010
Construction completed: September 201
Architect: MAX DUDLER
Project Manager: Alexander Bonte
General Contractor: Derichs u Konertz GmbH u Co KG Krefeld
General Planners during the Construction Period: Nattler Architects
Structural Engineers: Leonhardt, Andr und Partner Beratende Ingenieure VBI, GmbH, Berlin
Building Services: Winkels Behrens Pospich Ingenieure fr Haustechnik GmbH Mnster
Construction Physics / Acoustics: Mller-BBM GmbH Berlin
Photographer: Stefan Mller
Find more photos of the library in the image gallery below.
21/23
2016/09/03 0:29
Tagged showcase, library, max dudler, germany, essen, werden, archive, university, school, folkwang university of the arts
Related Archinect Profiles
Max Dudler
Folkwang University of the Arts
Back to Top
7 Comments
royc
( History | Contact )
Dec 8, 12 4:36 pm
Nicely done, and really pretty, but the faade is a rather direct, um, "reinterpretation" of the Beinecke Library.
FRaC
Dec 9, 12 7:20 pm
why the quotes? it is a reinterpretation of beinecke .. put through a herzog & demeuron filter
interiors reinterpret kahn's exeter library and wright's larkin building and plenty of other stuff too yeah nice project. i like that knife edge
on the beinecke-sque rear facade 5th image down woah that looks thin
royc
Dec 10, 12 1:32 am
It's a bit too literal of a reinterpretation for me, hence the quotes. I love the knife edge though, it's nicely done. I'd be really interested to
see the interior of that space, with the stairs/atrium, it looks like from the plan.
Steven Ward
Dec 10, 12 7:16 am
too literal because of the material, FRaC? because the rest isn't really the same thing. beinecke is a concrete frame, exposed, with a
lozenge-shaped opening of square proportions. This is a curtain-wall detail, with alternating vertical and horizontal panels, very rigidly
rectangular. expression is very intentionally flat, as opposed to the expression of the structure at beinecke.
at most i think the use of the material characteristics (because it might even be a little bit different material) is a quote.
Save Western
Dec 10, 12 9:55 am
It looks like the original proposal was for actual marble, which came back astronomically expensive, so they VE'd to curtain wall instead.
I wish, however, that instead of using the film to mimic marble, they would have used it to do something marble could never achieve.
Like commission a high art graffiti artist to do a building wrap or something.
jla-x
Dec 12, 12 10:39 am
alibaster would have been a nice alternative but probably too expensive.
gbrownm
Dec 13, 12 8:46 am
Another fine project by Max Dudler, tightly controlled, very Ungersian, well done!
Post a new comment:
Post Comment
22/23
Back to Features List...
2016/09/03 0:29
Back to Top
23/23

ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler - Features - Archinect

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler - Features - Archinect

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ShowCase: Folkwang Library by Max Dudler | Features | Archinect

Editorial & News

Stay architecturally enlightened!

Like Archinect on Facebook.

Sign up to our mailing list.

Your Email Address

ShowCase is an on-going feature series on Archinect, presenting exciting new

Project Description from Max Dudler: