Architecture: Filmic Portraits of Selected Buildings in Germany

The Central Library is situated in the middle of Ulm's historic city centre. Placed within a pyramid more than 35 meter high with glass external walls, it invites the whole town to engage in communication and dialogue.

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^{Concept/Camera/Editing: Andreas Christoph Schmidt/Michael Auer, Schmidt & Paetzel Fernsehfilme GmbH commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, 2008}

"By contrast with earlier library buildings, which had valuable objects to protect – and from which the general public were always excluded – libraries today are open to all citizens with a thirst for knowledge and have a constant turnover of holdings." This was the guiding idea followed by Gottfried Böhm, one of the most significant architects of the second half of the 20th century, when he came to design the new Ulm Central Library.

The library as an open space for experiences. Not only is it a source of information (after all the slogan of the City Library in Ulm is "Everyone's Got Questions, We Have Answers!"), it also provides communication services. The library regards itself as a location of real communication at a time when virtual worlds are gaining ever more ground.

The exterior: adapted to its environment

This unique jewel of urban planning and design, which has been built right next to Ulm City Hall, cost 12.7 million euros. It lies at the cultural heart of the city on the Danube not far from the City Museum, the Music School and the City Archive. At the same time, the new building fills a gap in the built environment that was a reminder of the bombing raids of the Second World War, which destroyed almost 80 percent of Ulm city centre.

The pyramid of the Louvre or the mother of all libraries at Alexandria: these may be the first associations on seeing the extravagant building, into which the library was moved in April 2004. But however spectacular and singular the work by Pritzker Prize Laureate Gottfried Böhm may appear, it draws on numerous features of the buildings around it in the Old City. The point of the pyramid is based on the pointed gables of the Late Gothic and Renaissance buildings that have remained preserved in the area. The projecting storeys of the half-timbered buildings are also reflected in the new construction. Medieval half-timbered structures can be made out in the filigree lines that run horizontally and vertically over the shimmering green-blue glass of the external walls. Like much literature, the design plays a lively game with quotations.

The interior: adapted to its function

The openness the glass building conveys from the outside is also met with inside. Here – with the exception of the administrative area – there are as good as no walls. A stairwell surrounds soundlessly gliding lifts in the centre of the building, and the monitor workstations for the users are arranged around this core. Virtual and spatial communication are therefore placed at the heart of the library.

The open, red-painted spiral staircase also leads the way visually to the reading café on the fifth floor, where it is possible to read the daily newspapers and leaf through magazines or simply enjoy the magnificent panoramic view over the city centre.

On the ground floor, there is what is known as the "Local Area" of the library. This is made up of roughly 350 square meters packed with resources for users with less specific information needs, items that will appeal to visitors who have strayed there by accident and things to get people browsing: DVDs, CD-ROMs, audiobooks, bestsellers, guides on a diverse range of subjects, comics and cartoons, sporting almanacs, and the library shop.

The Central Area of the library, which is intended to meet defined specialist or subject-oriented information needs, extends over three levels from the first to the third storeys. Apart from the Children's Library, this area accommodates the library's natural sciences, social sciences and cultural studies holdings. It also includes a Music Department, where visitors can play scores on an electric piano in a sound-proofed room.

This is the only place where anyone will ever be so isolated in the library. Every corner of the building has armchairs arranged in groups intended to encourage communication. The workspaces are not located to one side in a separate reading room, but in the light areas around the sides facing the façade – some of them with attractive views of the city.

The contents: dedicated to the library's aims

The Central Library is part of the library system of the City of Ulm, which also encompasses four district libraries, a mobile library and a children's library. The City Library was founded in 1516 and is therefore one of the oldest institutions in the city. No wonder then that it possesses impressive historic holdings of around 45,000 titles published before 1800.

Today the Central Library views itself as a modern information source and media centre. Apart from books, periodicals and newspapers, its stock of more than 540,000 items includes CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, cassettes, games and much more.

"We do not need the virtual library. We need the virtuoso library – in the sense of 'masterly, technically complete', the real library," as it says in the "13 Theses on the Future of Ulm City Library" published during the architectural competition for the Central Library. Furthermore, the new building in the Old City shows quite clearly that Ulm's librarians have not forgotten one thing during the successful development of their electronic library over the last few years: the significance of the real library as meeting place. It is a place of communication open to all the city's residents. And, in Ulm, an example of crystal-clear design.