© Hans Werlemann
Très Grande Bibliothèque
OMA received an honorable mention for Très Grande Bibliothèque, a competition to build a new national library in France. The program called for the creation of various smaller libraries contained in one building envelope; including libraries for moving images, recent acquisitions, reference, catalogues and scientific research. The immense amount of information to be stored within these spaces (books, films, digital databases) became the impetus for the overall concept design. The library is imagined as a solid block of information, a dense repository for the past, from which voids are carved to create public spaces – absence floating in memory.
![‘An old sketch for ZKM, suddenly pregnant’ SMLXL. Along with conference centers, restaurants, offices, etc. it would consolidate five separate and autonomous institutions in which the complete production of words and images since 1945 - the Bibliothèque is as much cinema as library- would be contained: a cinémathèque, library for recent acquisitions (magazines, books, videos), a reference library, a library of catalogs, and a scientific research library.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=500&h=375&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=800&h=600&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 800w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=1100&h=825&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1100w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=1500&h=1125&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=2000&h=1500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2000w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?rect=0,3,2040,1530&w=2500&h=1875&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2500w)
![‘An old sketch for ZKM, suddenly pregnant’ SMLXL. Along with conference centers, restaurants, offices, etc. it would consolidate five separate and autonomous institutions in which the complete production of words and images since 1945 - the Bibliothèque is as much cinema as library- would be contained: a cinémathèque, library for recent acquisitions (magazines, books, videos), a reference library, a library of catalogs, and a scientific research library.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=800&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 800w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=1100&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1100w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=1500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=2000&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2000w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/23b48c4ba3c36d4f035b6d0c5d69549283543280-2040x1537.jpg?w=2500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2500w)
![The scheme is based on technological scenarios developed with inventors, system analysts, writers, electronics companies. They all anticipate the utopia of fully integrated information systems to materialize before the opening of the building: books, films, computers will be read on the same magic tablets. The future will spell not the end of the book but a period of new equalities.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=500&h=375&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=800&h=600&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 800w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=1100&h=825&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1100w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=1500&h=1125&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=2000&h=1500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2000w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?rect=267,0,5248,3936&w=2500&h=1875&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2500w)
![The scheme is based on technological scenarios developed with inventors, system analysts, writers, electronics companies. They all anticipate the utopia of fully integrated information systems to materialize before the opening of the building: books, films, computers will be read on the same magic tablets. The future will spell not the end of the book but a period of new equalities.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=800&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 800w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=1100&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1100w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=1500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 1500w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=2000&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2000w, https://cdn.sanity.io/images/5azy6oei/production/8cc0a9c819180b86d19fb9cd59b347826a425604-5782x3936.jpg?w=2500&q=80&fit=crop&auto=format 2500w)
Strategy of the Void
…
2012
1989
Final Model
Digital Visualizations
Modelling The Voids
Sketch Models
Drawings
First Sketches