Library wins design award
THE University of Birmingham’s
£42 million Main Campus Library has won a prestigious nationwide design award.
The SCONUL (The Society of College, National and University Libraries) Design Awards showcase and celebrate the very best in library design in the UK and Ireland.
Winners were unveiled at the Library Design Awards event at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.
The 2019 awards received 15 high-calibre submissions and after careful consideration the judges announced the Associated Architectsdesigned library as winner of the Medium/Large Library category.
Warren Jukes, director at Associated Architects, said: “We are immensely proud to win the SCONUL Large Library Design award for the second time. It’s recognition of how our design prepared in close collaboration with stakeholders helped articulate the university’s vision for their library services enabling innovation and service redesign.”
Mailbox-based Associated Architects completed the award-winning Library on the Edgbaston Campus of the university in the summer of 2016.
The University of Birmingham Library splits 17,000 sqm of floor space over six levels. A series of lightwells run throughout, providing optimum daylight, while automatic blinds provide solar shading.
Half of the ground floor atrium is dedicated to open access facilities, with the remainder populated by I.T. facilities. Video editing booths, wireless mobile charging facilities and media rooms sit alongside 62km of shelving.