The TU Delft Library is the main library of the
Delft University of Technology
Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...
(TU Delft), located in
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
, Netherlands. It was designed by the Dutch architecture firm
Mecanoo
Mecanoo is an architecture firm based in Delft, Netherlands. Mecanoo was founded in 1984 by Francine Houben, Henk Döll, Roelf Steenhuis, Erick van Egeraat and Chris de Weijer.
Foundation
Houben, Döll and Steenhuis won a competition to desig ...
and built in 1997. It is the largest technical scientific library in the Netherlands.
Building
The library was designed in the early years of Mecanoo, whose founding members,
Erick van Egeraat
Erick van Egeraat (; born 1956) is a Dutch architect and author. He heads the architectural practice based in Rotterdam with offices in Moscow, Budapest and Prague. He is best known for his projects of ING Group Headquarters in Budapest, Drents Mu ...
, Henk Döll,
, Roelf Steenhuis and Chris de Weijer, were graduates of TU Delft. An example of a building that acts as landscape, the library is partially underground with a 15% sloped plane and a grass-covered
green roof
A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...
on top. Protruding from the artificial hill there is a steel cone which acts as a source of daylight and is meant to symbolize technical engineering.
Although a successful exterior element, the cone was more unsatisfactory in the interior and received some criticism in architectural reviews.
A series of columns distribute heat and light throughout the interior. The green roof system by ZinCo Benelux uses a cellular glass insulation and a substrate.
Together with the green roof and the insulation it provides, a reduced external wall surface improves the building's energy efficiency. The roof is walkable and the students use it to sit and socialize during the summer,
or as a sledding hill during the winter.
In the central hall the lending desk occupies the space at the bottom of the cone, surrounded by steel struts, with the east wall covered by suspended steel-frame bookcases going up four floor and accessible via stairs. The edge of the building is used for staff offices, with a fully glazed exterior window wall. The library is located in the center of the campus next to the brutalist-style auditorium Aula, by
Jo van den Broek
Johannes Hendrik ("Jo") van den Broek, (; 4 October 1898 - 6 September 1978) was a Dutch architect influential in the rebuilding of Rotterdam after World War II.
Van den Broek was born in Rotterdam. He joined with Johannes Brinkman in 1936, a ...
and
Jaap Bakema
Jacob Berend "Jaap" Bakema (8 March 1914 – 20 February 1981) was a Dutch modernist architect, notable for design of public housing and involvement in the reconstruction of Rotterdam after the Second World War.
Born in Groningen (city), Gronin ...
, providing a new spatial context to that building. The building received awards such as the Award for the Millennium, Corus Construction (2000),
and has been selected as one of the most original and beautiful libraries in the world by ''
Condé Nast Traveler
''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards.
The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club memb ...
'' and CNN Travel respectively.
Collections and activities
The library is the university's central library and also includes a learning center, student workspace rooms, a bookshop and a café. As of 2017 it had a collection of more than 862,000 books, and 16,000 magazine subscriptions.
The TU Delft Library is a founding partner of
DataCite
DataCite is an international not-for-profit organization which aims to improve ''data citation'' in order to:
*establish easier access to research data on the Internet
*increase acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions to ...
, a global network established to "improve access to research data on the Internet". In 2017 the library started a
data stewardship project focused on research data management.
Gallery
File:Library TUDelft.jpg, Cone during a winter sunset
File:Library Delft 6.jpg, Cone inside the library
File:Library Delft 7.jpg, Book wall and study desks
File:Library Delft 2.jpg, Outside of the library
References
External links
YouTube video by Mecanooabout the library.
The building of TU Delft Library video of the construction process of the library building.
Talk about data stewardshipby Alaistair Dunning, Head of Research Data Services at TU Delft.
Data Stewardshipat TU Delft Library.
{{Authority control
Research libraries in the Netherlands
Library buildings completed in 1997
Delft University of Technology
Modernist architecture in the Netherlands