State Research Library

A new glazed cube housing the lending area and reading rooms, as open to readers as possible, grows out of the Neoclassical Eggert Villa surrounded by its garden. The contrast between the historic villa and contemporary architecture is not suppressed but becomes the fundamental principle of the design.

The garden is framed by two more enclosed portals, which complement the light, transparent volume of the library and create a clearly legible composition for the whole site.

The right-hand portal was designed as a compact book store with storey heights tailored directly to the library shelving. The left-hand one, which was ultimately never built, was to house a cultural centre with a book club and a multifunctional studio stage. The design worked with simple volumes and materials and, above all, with technologies that were exceptionally progressive at the end of the socialist era – an automated conveyor system, computers and specialised library software.

In the end, only part of the original concept was built, and the further development of library services in České Budějovice took a different direction. Nevertheless, the project remains an important beginning – a first experience of architecture that sought to open up space for a new way of life through books, information and culture.