Zaha Hadid Architects Wins Competition for Library and Learning Center in Vienna

Zaha Hadid Architects have been selected as the architects of the Library and Learning Center (LLC) at the University of Economics & Business, Vienna. The new Library and Learning Center will be the centerpiece of the University’s new campus and provide a significant upgrade to the University’s services. In addition to the new library, the LLC will also provide a language laboratory, tutorial rooms, administration offices, student center, book shop, cafeteria, club rooms and event space.

The new Library and Learning Center rises as a polygonal block from the center of the new university campus. The LLC’s design takes the form of a cube with both inclined and straight edges. The straight lines of the building’s exterior separate as they move inward, becoming curvilinear and fluid, generating a free-formed interior canyon that serves as the central public plaza. All the other facilities of the LLC are housed within a single volume that also divides, becoming two separate ribbons that wind around each other to enclose this glazed gathering space.

“I am delighted to be working in Vienna as I have a close affiliation with the city. As a center of research, the Library and Learning Center is forum for the exchange of ideas. It is very exciting for us to be part of the University’s expansion.” states Zaha Hadid.

Rector of the University of Economics & Business, Christoph Badelt said “A library and learning center should be more than a mere library in the classical sense: it is a research and a service facility, a workplace and lounge, a place of communication and a traffic hub, at one and the same time. With its breathtaking architecture, the design by Zaha Hadid manages to combine all the key functions of study in a most wonderful way. It is a vision that embodies this innovative concept of a university.”

PROGRAM: The LLC comprises a “Learning Center” with workplaces, lounges and cloakrooms, library, a language laboratory, training classrooms, administration offices, study services and central supporting services, copy shop, book shop, data center, cafeteria, event area, club room and auditorium.

Images: Zaha Hadid Architects