Intended for Paris, La Très Grande Biblio-
thèque was the title of OMA’s entry for an
architecture competition launched by the
French state in 1989. Referred to as a ‘megalo-
maniac dream’, the TGB was to combine five
libraries in one 250,000-m^2 building. The pro-
ject’s political ambition – to reinvent France’s
culture by making accessible its entire intellec-
tual production since 1945 – inspired Kool-
haas to reinvent architecture itself: no longer
the design of buildings, he saw it as the craft
of their absence. The result was a giant cube
of documents from which public functions
would be carved out in amorphous spaces
while maintaining the overall solid shape. This
was the ‘strategy of the void’, which entailed
the excavation of reading rooms, research labs,
storage containers, offices, conference rooms,
cinemas, a restaurant, a gymnasium and a
garden from the existing mass of data. Internal
parts of the programme were to be connected
through a series of ramps, spirals (with a total
length of 4 km) and transparent elevators, all
adding to the building’s rich internal context.The Très Grande Bibliothèque was not entirely
self-referential, however: from its location on
the bank of the Seine, some of its functions- the all-encompassing catalogue room, for
example – would provide a panoramic vista of
the city of Paris, ‘a catalogue in itself’. Though
left unrealized, the super-library was the first
of a series of architectural experiments in
which data, perceived as the key element of
contemporary life, assumed a physical form in
the building’s literal design.
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OMA’s first library used the ‘strategy of
the void’ to fulfil a brief that asked for a
reinvention of France’s culture by making
accessible the nation’s entire intellectual
production since 1945.
1989
TRÈS GRANDE BIBLIOTHÈQUE
158 LIBRARIES