King Fahad National Library

Gerber Architekten completed in Riyadh the refurbishment and the extension of the King Fahad National Library, one of the most important cultural buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The project for the King Fahad National Library, one of the most important cultural buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, involved urban development and rearrangement and combines the challenge of designing within the existing building stock with respect for Arabian culture.

The King Fahad National Library represents the new centre of the rapidly changing Olaya District, and stands out clearly from the heterogeneous existing building pattern. The square new building in the centre of the urban park looks open and light, and is tied into the urban space despite its size. Gerber Architekten designed the existing park including parts of the available green space as a spacious square, and this and the library now form an urban unit.

The new building encloses the old one protectively, and combines itself with it in an unusual way, following monument preservation principles. The cruciform existing building, topped by a dome, is concealed inside the new building. The old structure is integrated as a building within a building, while its existing dome – originally in concrete – has now been reconstructed in steel and glass, and continues to be a cultural symbol of the library.

The entire former roof of the existing building, which occupies an extensive area, now provides a reading landscape flooded with light. Inside – as if hidden in a treasure chest, a knowledge storehouse – are the book stacks. Visitors access the open-access sections on the third floor of the new building via bridges from the reading area.

A new roof, punctuated by skylights under which white membranes gently distribute the light throughout the entire interior, covers everything.

The main entrance hall is on the ground floor, which also houses exhibition areas, a restaurant and a bookshop.

A library area for women only, in which they can spend time without a burka, is provided on the first floor of the new south wing; this space is separated from the other building uses, and is also accessed separately.

The key element of the façade was developed especially for the new building. It is a cladding made up of rhomboid textile awnings, marked by its play with revealing and concealing. Inserted white membranes, supported by a three-dimensional, tensile-stressed steel cable structure, act as sunshades and interpret the Arabian tent structure tradition in a modern, technological way.

During the night the façade glows with changing colours and becomes the city’s cultural lighthouse. This filigree steel cable structure has a solar penetration level of only 7 per cent, and at the same time makes it possible to look both in and out.

This façade was combined with ventilation and cooling for the building by means of layered ventilation and floor cooling. In this way, thermal comfort is increased and energy consumption significantly reduced by using certain methods and technologies for the first time in the Arab world.