Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library (O. Niemeyer. 1962-8), Haifa University

LOCATION: Haifa
PROGRAMME: Library
STATUS: Completed - 2012
CLIENT: University of Haifa
PHOTOGRAPHER: Amit Geron
ARCHITECT IN CHARGE: Phase 1: Lev Konikov - Phase 2: Nimrod Shenkelbach

Although Oscar Niemeyer removed his name from the project, and the project as actually built with architect Y. Gilad is a reduced and abstracted version of the original design, it is the clearest and most important modernist icon in Israel. During his stay here, Niemeyer emphasized the need for restraint and for preserving scarce land resources, and argued for the advantage embodied in density and compactness as a necessary condition for creating a new place. In this respect, the giant project in Haifa effectively embodies Niemeyer's spatial concept and constitutes a razor-sharp modernist alternative to the banal planning approaches that prevailed in Israel at the time and produced many local failures. It may be that, paradoxically, the reduced execution actually added to the conceptual clarity of the project and strengthened the iconic dimension of the mega-structure and of the tower rising from the peak of the Carmel.
At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that despite its success in creating an icon, the project failed at the local level and did not manage to create adequate conditions for its users, most of whom express an aversion to the building. The vast interior of the main building (230 x 70 m) is completely cut off from its immediate surroundings and in effect confines its users in a sequence of endless interior spaces. As a result, circulation is cumbersome, and most of the interior spaces lack natural ventilation or a view to the outside, creating an unpleasant feeling and difficulty in orientation.

Design principles: Intervening in the vast complex of the country's largest library required us to study its complex functional system thoroughly. Together with the library staff, over about two years, we formulated a set of measurable parameters, such as route lengths, waiting times, search and organization configurations, etc. All of these were weighed against the desired architectural effect, defined as "refreshing" the "tired" modernist monolith by redefining its relationship with the exterior, and turning the library into a lively learning environment with a variety of ways to spend time in it.
Accordingly, a kind of internal brief was formulated for the project, in which the architectural moves started from a position of preservation and utmost respect for the existing building, while on the other hand striving to "provoke" it in order to breathe new energy into the old library.

Extension, new building:
The new part of the project is located at the foot of the tower, buried in the ground (beneath the parking lot) and therefore hidden from view, except from the direction of the existing building's façade. The location chosen for the addition makes use of a segment of the original scheme that once served as fill for the soil excavated for the main building. The underground building consists of three floors, each 120 meters long, with a total area of approx. 5,000 m², and houses offices, workshops, collections, a reading hall and a cafeteria.

Crack, inner courtyard:
The gap between this segment and the existing building, which once served as a technical yard into which the air-conditioning exhausts were directed, was deepened and widened into a long, narrow inner courtyard – the crack (120/8 m).

Core, existing building:
The core project clears away all the interior partitions that had been built within the library's vast interior and restores the free, open floor space that was at the basis of Niemeyer's design but was never realized. This space extends over 3,000 m², and, like a terminal hall, it accommodates the library's main passages and desks and a variety of reading and media spaces.

Slit / Crack / Patio – the new project transforms the technical yard, which served as an outlet for the exhausts of the ventilation towers, into an elongated inner courtyard that invites library users to enjoy fresh air and a space unique of its kind. Putting the technical yard to use also makes it possible to create a kind of conceptual crack in the original scheme. The courtyard, approx. 110 meters long and 8 meters wide, was designed along its longitudinal axis like a segment of an urban boulevard (together with landscape architect Amir Blum), and it is defined on both sides by the parallel façades of the original structure and the new building. From within the courtyard one can gauge the differences in the forces driving the products of the different periods. The new façade uses the same geometric module and the same materials (concrete and glass) as the old façade, yet defies it with a completely opposite architectural approach.
On one side stands the rigid ideological formalism of the original façade, in the form of a straight, endless line, a product of the final days of architecture's heroic period. On the other side, the new façade folds the elevation, as well as the program, to create a variety of situations and in-between spaces at a non-monumental, accessible scale.
Under the dramatic presence of the tower, the elongated courtyard becomes a space in which an active cultural dialogue unfolds between old and new, closed and open, rigid and flexible, memory and presence.
As part of the same approach, which replaces the monumental with the local, use was made of the memory of the old climbing plant that covered the wall of the technical space into which the new building was dug. Through graphic design, the leaves of the climber were turned into a graphic pattern printed like white lace on the glass of the new façade, serving as a filter between the office occupants and the users of the public space of the crack.