Cultural · 2022
Klint Reading Room
A municipal reading room built around a single north light and a long oak bench. Everything else — shelving, seating, acoustics — is detailed to disappear, so the room stays quiet enough to hear the building settle.
The brief
A public room for reading, where the quiet is the architecture.
The municipality wanted a reading room that would serve a neighbourhood without a library. It had to be open long hours, run by a single member of staff and feel generous on a tight budget.
The approach
We built one tall room with a single north-facing clerestory and a long oak bench along the south wall. The light is constant, the furniture is fixed and the room asks nothing of the people who use it.
Pale timber for everything you touch, lime-washed masonry for everything you do not, and one line of blackened steel where the roof meets the wall. The palette is small so the books and the readers are the colour in the room.
Project facts
Location
Aarhus, DK
Year
2022
Scale
280 m²
Role
Interiors & furniture
Client
Aarhus Kommune
Status
Completed
Partner in charge
Erik Marklund
Photography
Atelier Nord
Plan
A bench, a shelf and a wall of light.
The plan is a simple rectangle. The bench runs along the south wall, the shelves line the north wall beneath the clerestory, and a small staff desk sits by the entrance so one person can see the whole room.
01
Reading bench
02
Shelving beneath the clerestory
03
Staff desk and entrance
Ground floor plan
1 : 200
Quiet
Nothing in the room is louder than a turning page.
Acoustic absorption is hidden in the timber ceiling slats and behind the shelving, so the room is soft without looking upholstered. The north light is even all day, and no one has to move to find a good place to read.
Down to the last detail
Three junctions, drawn full size.
Design intent is protected in the details, and details are decided on site. These are the three we spent the most time on.
01
Bench to wall
The oak bench is fixed to a steel channel set into the masonry, so it appears to float with a continuous shadow beneath.
02
Clerestory sill
The sill is a single oak board, sloped so that light falls onto the shelf faces rather than the floor.
03
Timber ceiling
Slats are spaced at 40 mm with black felt behind, tuning the room to the sound of a conversation at a table.
Gross floor area
Months from brief to opening
Metres of continuous oak bench
North light, the full length of the room
“
It is the calmest public room in the city, and it was built for the cost of a car park.
M. Sørensen
Head of Culture, Aarhus Kommune · Client, Klint Reading Room
