The Stockholm City Library, designed by Erik Gunnar Asplund and completed around 1928, sits just outside the bustling center of Stockholm. The design task was to adapt or add to the existing building, in a way that it’s to meet the needs of a modern public library in Sweden. My design proposal emphasizes the relationship with the surroundings, as the building is nestled between a park and the city. I carefully consider what’s already there, what works well, and what needs adaptation. While the current building holds significant historical value, it presents a somewhat monumental, static appearance. To accommodate modern library functions, such as maker spaces and lecture spaces, I propose an additional building next to the Stockholm City Library. This addition would allow for a more flexible and modern design while respecting the historical and architectural significance of existing buildings on the site, such as the three annex buildings and the bazaar. The new design functions primarily as a
separate building, contrasting with the existing Stockholm City Library. While the current library, with its high-placed windows and monumental appearance, creates a separation from its surroundings, my building aims to be open and welcoming. It sees the library as an integral
part of the city and local community, blurring the boundary between where the library starts and ends. These contrasting buildings will complement each other, with one representing the traditional library, and the other emphasizing the role and needs of the modern library. I drew inspiration from Asplund’s earlier design proposals and the existing bazaar which connects the library with the city. I also borrowed some features from the existing library. In my design, I repeated the visual motif of the Stockholm City Library’s base (bazaar). However, my building is intended to be less imposing than the monumentality of the original Stockholm City Library. Hereby, the monumentality of the existing building is kept or even strengthened, while it keeps
functioning as an institute of knowledge for the city. The new addition enhances the connection between the park and the city, while also providing a sense of belonging, focusing on the importance of the library for the local community.

This project is a response to the changing role of the public library and how this change could be translated in a design for a new Stockholm City Library. A new structure is added to extend the existing library to provide space for large programs and activities that can't be hosted in the existing structure due to lack of space. This new structure is connecting the urban side of the site to the landscape of the park, while respecting it's surroundings. It carefully wraps around the hillside next to the Stockholm City Library, making it part of the landscape of the hill. The interior is a reinterpretation of the rotunda of Asplund’s library and a continuation of the urban and natural landscape it is part of.

The "Right to the City [Library]" project aims to expand and modernize the historic Stockholm Public Library, designed by Gunnar Asplund and completed in 1927. This initiative addresses challenges posed by digitization and evolving library roles while preserving the building's architectural heritage, creating a welcoming, accessible space that respects Asplund's design and introduces versatile areas.

Located in the Vasastaden neighborhood, the Stockholm Public Library is known for its unique atmosphere and architectural features, especially the rotunda. As Stockholm’s first public library, it was modeled after American libraries where patrons could freely access books. Today, it is a cultural landmark.

However, the library's current design no longer meets modern spatial and functional needs. The extension project, informed by research into Asplund’s work and contemporary library design principles, aims to create an inclusive space that fosters intellectual growth. By restoring the library’s relationship with the city, the design seeks to counteract the imposing nature of the original structure, promoting accessibility and community engagement. This aligns with Henri Lefebvre's idea of "The Right to the City," where urban spaces are designed for and by the people.

The design process ensured a harmonious connection with the existing library while introducing new functional spaces, resulting in three primary components: the hallway, the stairs, and the observatory.

The Hallway: This transition and circulation space links various parts of the library, facilitating movement and access.

The Stairs: A complex set of interior and exterior stairs enhances connectivity between the library, observatory, and hill, integrating the new addition with Asplund’s design and connecting the library to Stockholm.

The Observatory: Mediating between the rotunda and the hill, the observatory provides additional library space. The reading room at the top contrasts with the grand, introspective rotunda of the original library, designed to be intimate and outward-facing with eye-level views. The design emphasizes a domestic, inviting atmosphere, embodying the idea that everyone has the right to be part of the library's community.

The extension increases the library’s usable floor area by 6630 square meters, including more educational and group study spaces, an auditorium, a café, and back-of-house facilities. The observatory's reading rooms provide panoramic views, creating a more inviting and accessible environment than the original library's formal reading spaces.

Using local materials like granite and ceramic ensures the extension's durability and aesthetic harmony with the existing building. This thoughtful blend of old and new addresses modern needs while respecting the Stockholm Public Library's historical value, creating a more inclusive and versatile environment that enhances the site's overall coherence.

The brief of this year’s studio addresses the National Bank of Belgium located on the border of upper and lower parts of Brussels. The current fortress like megastructure that the bank occupies is imposing power and solidity, but is closing itself completely from the public. With the traditional role of the bank such as printing and storage of currency being relocated outside of the city and finance transitioning to virtual mediums, the National Bank of Belgium seeks to both redefine itself physically and at the same time rethink its role in the society. The future bank is a catalyst of change which would affect the city in various scales - through the future economy, society’s attitude and awareness.

Social equality and justice are among the foundations of the doughnut economy model which the bank and the city of Brussels strive for. However, currently the national bank is merely touching upon this aspects of the model. The national bank fails to positively contribute to the above stated core values, fails to fulfil its mission as a socially responsible and inclusive institution. Moreover, the money-based market system fails to reward many types of critical work—the work of building strong communities, revitalising neighbourhoods, preserving the environment, advancing social justice, and sustaining democracy. Therefore, I asked myself the question what is there to be done to positively influence this model and where is it lacking attention at the moment so the bank could respond to this.

In order to meet these societal, environmental needs, my proposal for the national bank of Belgium is to offer opportunities for fostering more equitable and inclusive economic order alongside with the money-based market within the institution. This way the bank typology goes back to its roots and once again becomes a place of exchange for the public. An exchange of values, knowledge, skills, experience, time. The bank accommodates different alternatives of dealing with the value of things. If we are going to actually rethink the economy in our society, then the idea of fostering alternative banking such as time banking, using local currencies, community banking, community funding bartering in the National Bank of Belgium is already a beginning of putting an emphasis on the fact that there is value in other things apart from money.

The national bank becomes an inclusive space without hierarchies where people are welcomed to express themselves, take part into the alternative banking, protest even by being part of the what might be called a city forum. The project for the national bank aims to engage citizens to come together to form communities and to take part in the micro banking. It becomes a transparent and active institution which fosters other monetary systems apart from the money based one. The national bank becomes an active part of the citizen’s daily life and not just for its employees as it was functioning until now.

The National Bank of Belgium occupied a large, closed block on the edge of lower and upper Brussels. The building complex will become the workplace of the bank’s 1500 office-based staff. Moreover, the bank sees itself as a more open, permeable environment because of the increasingly digital finance and the move out of security functions. The bank's transformation aims to invite the public to enter the world of bank.
The project proposes the future bank as an open, inviting public interior. It provides its users with diverse urban experiences, new skills, and knowledge, and is an easy place to access for work, relaxation, eating, and learning. Elevated gardens are created in the main bank hall, connecting the public programs and leading people up to the citizen terrace on the rooftop. For staff, they are encouraged to grow their own vegetables and flowers on the newly added balconies and to cook and eat with colleagues in the lounges.

The Future Bank, the design project for the graduation studio of Interiors Buildings Cities, questions the current role of the National Bank of Belgium withing the city of Brussels, as the institution has distanced itself from the city by the digitalization and outsourcing of former location-bound banking activities. This graduation project, ‘The Future Bank: Designing the Intermediary Space’ addresses the issue by reconnecting the bank building and the city through adopting a more public character. The building is partially transformed into an educational cluster, to house study facilities for students, a library and public archive and the banking museum. Two central courts are created within the building: the auditorium court and a public courtyard. Both of which respond to the direct urban context by bridging the height difference between the banking hall, the main entrance of the building, and the Governor’s Hotel, the most historical building part. The banking hall is transformed into a public interior square which functions as the main entrance for all users and as a foyer and lobby space for the auditorium court and the courtyard. A public route is constructed from the banking hall to the entrance of the Governor’s Hotel, which redraws the boundary between the public and private functions in the building. The design of the intermediary space, the space between the public and private functions, responds to the reconfiguration of the publicly accessible space within the building. By incorporating workspaces and social facilities within the design of the intermediary space, the relation between public and private functions is emphasized. This way, the appropriation of the building and the interrelation of its different users is manifested architecturally on the user-level.

Tentoonstelling 'Architectuur i.s.m' georganiseerd door het Vlaams Architectuurinstituut en deSingel.@en