Sir Duncan Rice Library

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Sir Duncan Rice Library
Facade of the Sir Duncan Rice Library
Facade of the Sir Duncan Rice Library

founding 1451
Library type University library
place Aberdeen , Scotland Coordinates: 57 ° 9 ′ 53.9 "  N , 2 ° 6 ′ 20.2"  WWorld icon
operator University of Aberdeen
Website http://www.abdn.ac.uk/library/about/main/

The Sir Duncan Rice Library is the central university library of the University of Aberdeen .

The building was designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and completed in 2011. It is named after Duncan Rice (* 1942), a former rector of the university. The cube-shaped building is clearly visible from the entire campus and a large part of the city. It is a seven-story tower, clad in white and clear glass panes laid like a zebra, and has a floor space of 15,500 square meters. It houses several of the university's historical collections, including more than a quarter of a million antiquarian books and manuscripts collected in the five centuries since the university was founded. There are also publicly accessible exhibition rooms. The library replaced the smaller Queen Mother Library as the central university library.

history

The Queen Mother Library was the central university library from 1965. In 2005, the university administration ran a limited international design competition for a new library, which was won by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. Financially, the project was the largest project the university has ever undertaken. The plans were presented to the public in 2007.

Construction of the new library building began in August 2009. Caithness Stone Industries was awarded the contract to supply the stones required for the construction. The topping-out ceremony was celebrated in October 2010. Construction work was completed in September 2011. At that time the building was named Aberdeen University New Library . On September 21, 2012, the name of the building was changed in honor of Duncan Rice, who was rector of the university from 1990-2006 and during whose tenure the project was designed and financed. The library was officially opened by the Queen on September 24, 2012 . In the first year the library had 700,000 visitors.

design

Sir Duncan Rice Library atrium on King's College campus

The building sits on a base of Scottish stone. The ground floor has a double storey height; seven more floors sit above it. The building is enveloped by panes of glass that alternate between white and clear in a zebra-like manner. Inside there is a centrally arranged atrium. This contrasts with the geometric exterior of the building, but is an organic form, the position of which shifts across the various floors.

1200 reading places are distributed over the floors above the ground floor, 13,000 running meters of shelves can hold a total of 400,000 books. The building is BREEAM certified as “Excellent” . Features of the construction that contributed to this rating include a system for using rainwater to flush the toilets, photovoltaic cells on the roofs and programmed timers to control the use of lighting.

Outside the library is art in public space : Evolutionary Loop 517 is a 6.25 m high bronze sculpture by Nasser Azam that was unveiled on May 27, 2012.

Other university libraries are located in the Taylor Building (for legal books and materials) and in Foresterhill (for medicine and medical sciences). The university's libraries hold a total of over a million volumes.

Awards

View on two sides of the library, end of 2012
Evolutionary Loop 517 by Nasser Azam, with the library in the background

In 2012, the structure was awarded the Aberdeen Civic Society Award. In 2013 it received a RIAS award; it was also nominated for the 2013 RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award . It received the National Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2013 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alan Dunlop: Library, University of Aberdeen, by Schmidt Hammer Lassen . In: Architects Journal . December 8, 2011.
  2. ↑ Sir Duncan Rice Library ( English ) Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects . Retrieved July 31, 2016.
  3. ^ Library for Aberdeen (English) . In: Times Higher Education , June 8, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2016. 
  4. ↑ 'Exciting and fabulous': Queen opens University of Aberdeen's £ 57m library (English) . In: STV News , September 24, 2012. Accessed August 1, 2016. 
  5. ↑ Library of the future is revealed (English) . In: BBC News , August 13, 2007. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  6. ↑ a b New £ 57m University of Aberdeen library opens (English) . In: BBC News , September 12, 2011. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  7. ↑ Caithness stone for new £ 57m Aberdeen library (English) . In: BBC News , April 8, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  8. ↑ New University of Aberdeen library 'topping out' held (English) . In: BBC News , October 6, 2010. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  9. ↑ a b Bridgette Meinhold: Schmidt Hammer Lassen's Shimmering & Efficient Aberdeen University New Library Opens in Scotland ( English ) inhabitat.com. October 10, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  10. ↑ Entry on Sir Duncan Rice Library  in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
  11. ↑ Queen opens new library at Aberdeen University (English) . In: BBC News , September 24, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  12. ↑ a b c d Aberdeen’s Sir Duncan Rice Library officially opened ( English ) www.urbanrealm.com. September 28, 2012. Accessed July 31, 2016.
  13. ↑ a b Jonathan Glancey: Swirl power: Aberdeen's new £ 57m university library (English) . In: The Guardian , January 8, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2016. 
  14. ↑ RIBA National awards: Winners 2013: Scotland: University of Aberdeen Library ( English ) Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Retrieved August 2, 2016.
  15. ^ Penny Lewis: Light reading: Schmidt Hammer Lassen at Aberdeen University (English) . In: Architecture Today , November 21, 2011. Archived from the original on August 18, 2016 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved July 31, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.architecturetoday.co.uk 
  16. ^ Hannah Oakman: Off the books ( English ) February 28, 2014. Accessed August 1, 2016.
  17. ↑ University celebrates the old and new with 20ft bronze sculpture (English) . In: STV News , May 29, 2013. Accessed July 31, 2016. 
  18. ↑ 'Tent' among 12 Scottish architecture award winners (English) . In: BBC News , June 13, 2012. Retrieved August 1, 2016. 
  19. ↑ Matilda Battersby: RIBA Awards 2013: Educational buildings dominate this year's Stirling prize longest (English) . In: The Independent , June 13, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2016.