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Case study: university faculty library

“The open shelving system is ideal as it allows the space to be read as a whole”

Colin Rice
Edward Cullinan Architects

Architects for the library of the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
Completed 2000

www.edwardcullinanarchitects.com

The challenges

• maximise the extent of shelving
• allow for comfortable access to the open collection
• allow for easy supervision while providing areas for private study
• maximise natural daylight
• enable views out

Open… but intimate

The university wanted natural daylight and views to the outside as well as creating a space that would be easy to supervise.

This informed the choice of using Vitsœ’s compressed shelving system: compressing the X-Posts between floor and ceiling allows the system to be used without fixing to the wall.

“The Vitsœ system was the perfect shelving solution for the library at the Faculty of Divinity – a happy marriage between the building’s structure and the shelving concept.

The uprights that support the shelves are tightened up between the exposed concrete soffits and the power floated concrete slab and allow the space to flow visually above and below the shelves.

Although the floor to ceiling height is only 2.1m, the feeling is one of light and airiness.”

Colin Rice, Edward Cullinan Architects

On strings…

Making use of the two available widths of the system – 65.5cm and 90cm – we identified ‘string’-like combinations Types A to G (shown in plan) that would utilise the space most efficiently.

Located along the radii of the two floor plates, the types maximise the extent of shelving while allowing for barrier-free and comfortable manouvering between the shelves.

The fan layout allows the collection to be followed in a continuous ribbon on each floor, and the disposition of subjects can be readily seen from the inquiry desk on the lower level.