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drama takes full glory, with views through, upward, downward offering layers of
space and the full blend of materials. Here visitors can appreciate the marriage of
old and new, even as they nestle into its cosy comfort or get down to work. The
half-timbered side walls provide convenient nooks for built-in shelving, between
the evocative, angled bases of the roof trusses. Surfaces are chalky concrete,
unstained timber, or new white panels, adding up to a palette that underscores
both the history and the modernity of the library. There is a third-level mezzanine
for more stacks and seating areas, that runs down the centre of the plan like a
concrete bridge. This is tucked under the pinnacle of the steep roof, and its edges
are left open to the floor below, such that it feels a bit like occupying a huge naval
ship. The end gable walls are lovely grand windows flooding the loft with light. It
would be easy to lose hours nearby, gazing outwards rather than at a text.An external lacework of vertical boards helps moderate sunlight and add to
the facades. The slats are angled variously as they encircle the walls, and are a
transformation of the typical horizontal boards cladding old barns of this type. It works
well enough that many visitors may soon forget the ninety-degree change to the
cladding.With its urban proximity to the village’s town hall and festival venue, the new library
holds an iÜortant civic spot, and the external spaces adjacent can be tapped for all
manner of uses, festivities and holiday events... an iÜortant reason for opening up the
ground-floor doorways. Library Kressbronn is a very fine-looking addition to the village
centre; it will be an Instagram celebrity for certain. But it is inside it that the music really
plays; you are drawn to explore its every corner, and relish the ways this deceptively
modest building hits all its architectural notes in perfect tune.