A sculpted concrete stair curving up through a top-lit hall

Cultural · Aarhus, Denmark · 2022

Saltwater Library

A public room on the harbour, lit by the sea.

Overview

Aarhus asked for a library that would feel like the harbour’s living room. We gave it one great space: a top-lit reading hall where a concrete stair climbs through four levels of books.

The concrete is cast in place and left bare, softened by oak floors, wool acoustic panels and the constant reflected light of the water.

On winter afternoons, when the light goes early, the hall glows across the harbour like a lamp left on for the city.

Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Year: 2022
Status: Completed
Typology: Cultural
Coordinates: 56.1629° N, 10.2039° E

Gallery

A closer look.

Three images. Select any one to see it full screen.

Drawings

Drawn to be built.

Plan, section and elevation, from the foyer to the café, each drawn to scale on the structural grid.

The ground floor, set out on a 6 × 5 m structural grid.36 × 20 m · 5 rooms · 720 m² ground floor

Materials

Made of few things.

Three materials, chosen at the source and left to age. Nothing is painted to look like something else.

Fair-faced Concrete
Cast once, in timber formwork we draw ourselves. The tie holes stay: they are how you read the pour.
Low-iron Glass
Without the green cast of ordinary glass, so the landscape reads true from edge to edge.
Charred Oak
Scorched the old Japanese way, oiled, then left alone. The char is the weatherproofing, and it deepens with every winter.