<GPDVT°BSDIJUFDUVSF>An old barn structure near the centre of town sparked this effort, leading to a
conversion project that respects the past and protects it, while bringing to it a fresh
use and outlook. The existing building, if familiar, was of fine proportions and massing.
A 45-degree pitched roof sat over a long, wide, rectangular body that met the ground
with solidity and purpose. Functionality may have driven the typology, but it was as
elegant as it was useful. In places all over the map, barns make for great programmes
coÜletely unrelated to agriculture – from houses to museuÙ – in part because of their
siÜlicity and huge, open interior spaces. Kressbronn was no exception.hinge 275_
The traditional division between a more robust ground floor, used for equipment and
storage, and a large threshing hall upstairs, was retained in the new library. If most of
the new hall is now constructed of new material, it is difficult for laypersons to tell. This
could be a polished restoration as much as a build of brand-new material. The lower
floor is enclosed in concrete walls and offers opaque ‘pavilions’ enclosing services and
a staircase. A regular pattern of cut openings in the perimeter walls offers daylight and
access to the public space outside, and the plan allows adequate open space for events
or variable uses to occupy it. But it is upstairs that the main level of the library is revealed,