Prague National Technical Library

In 2000 Projektil Architekti won the competition for the National Technical Library on the Czech Technical University's Dejvicka campus. The library features six floors above grade and three floors below. The latter houses parking, storage and other non-daylight functions, and the former's mass sits behind a pleasing double-wall glass façade, softened by the doughnut-shaped building's rounded corners. Approaching the stand-alone building from the surrounding campus, the library veils its content behind the finely proportioned glazing. A prominent horizontal band and matching vertical marks break up an otherwise homogenous façade. Access from any of the four sides is via recessed portals that give way to a central atrium. It is this space that is the heart of the project, a colourful space not anticipated by the exterior's formal treatment or lack of colour (text from www.archidose.org).