The new city library in Stuttgart

A joint product of GEZE and Hörmann: entry door to the first level of the reading gallery via the "heart of the library."

"Stadtbibliothek am Mailänder Platz" is the official name of the new Stuttgart city library, which was opened at the end of October. To most people, it has been known as "Library 21" next to the main station, since the start of the three year construction period. 79 million euros were invested in a library that meets the latest standards. 500,000 items are accommodated on two floors below ground and nine floors above ground.

The combination of barrier-freedom, fire protection and design due to GEZE system products can be encountered almost everywhere in the library. In this complex structure, in which there are constantly hundreds of people, fire protection plays a fundamental role. Automatic one-leaf fire protection doors with aluminium frames and discreet, compact Slimdrive EMD-F swing door drive systems are also to be found as entries to the reading gallery levels. The same door solutions were realised for the formation of corridor and fire zones on the individual floors. The tried-and-tested GEZE door closers, especially those of the TS 5000 series, can be found in a variety of doors on all floors.

Fully glazed automatic fire protection sliding doors

The four busy entries to the first reading gallery level, directly above the "heart of the library," were equipped with fully automatic linear sliding doors. From here, the visitors - like flowing promenades - move via the flights of stairs arranged in pairs and rotated. The glass T30 fire protection sliding doors equipped with Slimdrive SL drives are an exclusive joint product of GEZE and the door and gate specialist Hörmann. The combination is the only automatic fire protection sliding door system approved by the Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt). The fully glazed automatic sliding doors of the fire resistance class T30 thus offer architects and planners a verified solution. In the event of fire, the doors close automatically and represent a fire barrier - even if the hold-open function of the automatic door was used previously. They get by without guide rails in the passage area and bestow barrier-free ease of access in "normal operation". The narrow drives were discreetly integrated into the door lintel covering, just like the combined radar movement detector for controlling and safeguarding the door. A display programme switch with a key switch for safeguarding the door against unauthorised operation was incorporated into the door jamb and the side wall of the bookshelves. 

The Cologne architect Eun Young Yi designed a "free-standing, monolithic building". The cube is 44 x 44 m wide and 40 m high. The building shell consists of a double façade with an outer façade as a layer of glass bricks and an inner beam-and-post façade as thermal insulation for the building. With this second façade, Young Yi, who consciously designed the new library as a structure with an inward focus, separates the world of books and culture from the busy outside world. The passages in-between can be used as a promenade. In the night, they are illuminated blue in a fascinating way.

In the centre of the building, three rooms are piled on top of one another: an auditorium in the basement, and a four-storey main room above it of 14x14x14 metres - white and left completely empty. It is supposed to be the "heart" of the library, the spatial and meditative centre of the whole building. A four-storey reading gallery level is located directly above this. The galleries and the bookshelves move to the side, floor by floor, so that the building seems to expand in terraces towards the light. The "old" Parisian Bibliotheque nationale de France from the 18^th century sponsored the galleries.

Barrier-freedom and fire protection in a homogeneous design

Barrier-free access to the ring-shaped foyer of this completely white enclave of peace and mediation in the middle of Stuttgart's lively station and banking district is possible from all four sides of the building, through high doorways with draught lobbies.  The double fully automatic two-leaf swing doors with GEZE Slimdrive EMD F-IS drive systems quietly and conveniently handle the flow of the public, continuously going "in and out". Almost symbolically, the doors stand for what the visitors expect: the comfort of a modern library, security, quiet and a purist design. Due to the activation switches integrated into the doorknobs, a gentle push is sufficient to start the soundless opening of the high doors. The radar movement detector and the sensor strips for safeguarding the door, so that "collisions" between passers-by and the door are avoided, are discreet.  The white décor of the entrance area, focussed on reduction, is supported by the design of the door: the closing sequence control that closes both door leaves in the right order is invisibly integrated into the narrow drive cover, which is only seven centimetres high.

View from the reading gallery, the book and media level, onto the central fanlight of the core of the library, the "heart of the library".