Works News Office
Name:Carolina Rediviva
Type:Culture/Public
Location:Uppsala, Sweden
Year:2019
Carolina Rediviva, the main building of Uppsala University Library, has a prominent location on a hill next to the Royal Palace overlooking the city. Since the library’s inauguration in the 1840s, the rear of the building has been extended several times by well-known architects such as Axel Anderberg, Jöran Curman and, in the 1960s, Peter Celsing. The latter’s additions in exposed concrete are among the spaces that have been rearranged in this project.
The brief was to improve the accessibility of the library for both students and visitors to the exhibitions. To achieve this, the security gates were moved into the building and the public spaces were cleared of decades of minor additions and rearrangements. The student service spaces are considerably enlarged: the restaurant occupies an existing two-storey space where the original exposed concrete has been restored. The upper floor is a combined café/study space accessible via new stairs. The colour schemes of the spaces are also new. The perforated yellow glazed brick surfaces of the restaurant have acoustic properties as well as installations for ventilation, electricity and media. The arrangement of the interiors required us to retain as well as rearrange existing features of the building in combination with the new designs. Where possible, the 1960s brown and white-striped carpets were retained; one exception is the restaurant, which has new terrazzo floors in the same colours. The restaurant chairs are a 1940s Swedish adaption of a Thonet chair already in use in the library.

Photographs by Ioana Marinescu.
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