Bookmark Salbke Open-Air-Library
The outdoor-library is a hybrid of a building and a small pocket park that was erected on the fallow site of a former district library in very close collaboration with the Citizens of Magdeburg.
The project was planned right from the beginning as a SOCIAL SCULPTURE. The starting point as intervention and temporary test of an outdoor library has helped to generate a truly open process and set a basis to evolve and to include unforeseen aspects of sustainability. The collection of donated books, the primer functions as well as the re-use of a modernist facade of the 1960ies has been developed in an intense dialogue between architects and Citizens.
The outdoor library was planned right from the beginning as a SOCIAL SCULPTURE in the centre of the district Salbke that is characterized by shrinkage, abandoned industrial plants and brownfields. The design of the outdoor-space as well as its functions has been negotiated in a very close and open participation process.
A public intervention, using beer crates as building material was the projects start: On the fallow site of the former district library a 1:1 model has been mocked up for two days and the shelves have been filled with book-donations. The residents took over the energy of the temporary project and opened up an informal district-library near the site, which now offers more than 30.000 donated books.
Beside the aspect of SOCIAL SUSTAINABILTY, the architectural highlight of the project is the re-use of a renown facade of a modernist department store in the City of Hamm. The department stores of the entrepreneur Horten, built in numerous German cities - with a more or less similar facade - have soon raised as target of fundamental modernist critic. Today there is a re-evaluation of these kinds of facades. In this sense, the project stands beside energetic aspects for a SUSTAINABILTY OF SIGNS of the post-war period.
Since its inauguration the Open-Air-Library and its retro-futuristic design is seen by the citizens as a new VILLAGE ICON and as sign towards a brighter future. The bookshelves are never closed; you can take a book whenever you want. There is no bureaucracy - it is a library of confidence. The Open-Air-Library was funded as a pilot project in a research framework by the German Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. Beside the aspect of SOCIAL SUSTAINABILTY, the architectural highlight of the project is the re-use of a renown facade of a modernist department store in the City of Hamm. The department stores of the entrepreneur Horten, built in numerous German cities - with a more or less similar facade - have soon raised as target of fundamental modernist critic. Today there is a re-evaluation of these kinds of facades. In this sense, the project stands beside energetic aspects for a SUSTAINABILTY OF SIGNS of the post-war period.