Last year I was able (at last) to visit the library and had a private tour of the building with Peter Wilson (along with my Edinburgh Art College students). The City Library was their first major project and originally commissioned to commemorate the city’s 1200th anniversary in 1993.
Certainly the design reflects it time and acknowledges a renewed interest in the city as a forum for forensic intervention. The layout is highly complex and mimics the English Landscape Garden tradition; where you first spy your goal, then drift off before rediscovering your original object. Each space is conceived of as an ‘event’ in itself (for example, the newspaper room focuses on a welcoming fireplace) which are then fused into a complex and evocative whole. The building is an intimate place of information, quiet learning, studious endeavour and, at the same time, a dynamic symbol of Münster’s regeneration.
