Free University Berlin - 2005

The new library for the Faculty of Philosophy occupies a site created by the unification of six of the university’s existing courtyards and its four floors are contained within a naturally ventilated enclosure. It exemplifies how buildings can utilise passive and active technologies to radically increase energy efficiency and reduce their impact on the environment. The double skin of the enclosure acts as an air duct and thermal buffer, ‘breathing’ through the opening and closing of different panels. The mass of the concrete structure, itself a passive thermal store, is further heated and cooled by piped water inside the structure and responds to Berlin’s fluctuating climate. In lower temperatures (below 6°C), the external skin closes like a cocoon and fresh air is drawn through an undercroft and warmed as it passes through by the thermal core. In moderate temperatures (above 16°C), a mix of fresh and re-circulated air is cooled by the core. For 60 percent of the year, the library can be entirely naturally ventilated by opening various panels and using controlled fresh air drawn in through the undercroft. During the day the library is lit by sunlight alone. These factors mean that the library consumes 35 percent less energy than a comparable building.