Bucerius Law School

Library building

Hamburg

  • Client: Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius
  • Architect: Meding Plan + Projekt GmbH
  • 4 upper floors, 1 basement
  • Reinforced concrete skeleton, flat floor slabs, split levels
  • Shallow foundation above an old existing bunker tunnel
  • GFA: c. 4,750 m²
    Time: 2006 – 2007
    Building costs: c. 6.8 mill. EUR
  • Our scope:
    structural engineering

Legal information centre.

The library is situated on the green campus of the Bucerius Law School, directly on the "Planten un Blomen" inner-city park. With 540 working spaces, it provides scientific information for students, academic staff and professors, and is permanently open. It holds more than 110,000 printed media and over 10,000 e-books as well as numerous licensed online and offline databases. As well as the library, the building also houses a lecture hall as well as the university canteen.

The structure was designed as a reinforced concrete skeleton with wide-spanned flat floor slabs. The construction takes the specific functional and design requirements into account. These include offset floor levels – so-called split levels – as well as large and wide-spanned staircases. A pillar-free courtroom has been built on the ground floor. The special facade design is cleverly integrated into the structure by means of offset prefabricated reinforced concrete components above a spandrel beam flush with the first floor.

The basement story is formed of a “white tank” concrete shell in combination with a technically-demanding shallow foundation above an old existing bunker tunnel on the building site.

An appropriate home.

Private Library

Library and Lecture Hall

Hamburg

Shining for the audience.

Auditorium

Bucerius Law School

Hamburg

Not only virtual storage space is in demand.

Max Planck Institute

Extension for library and offices

Hamburg