Lateran University Library Architecture in Italy by King Roselli Architetti

On commissioning the project for the new library extension to the Pontificial Lateran University the chancellor Mons. Rino Fisichella was quite clear in his main objective: to bring the activity of reading and the consultation of books as the central occupation of the university.

The new reading rooms and book stacks for free consultation are enclosed in in the new extension placed closer to the heart of the university with access from the main spine of the first floor corridor. The reading rooms are now concentrated in a single volume with access to 70,000 volumes and 750 publications housed in the six floors of book stacks in a fire-protected tower.

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Externally, the new building is placed next to a central block of lecture rooms of the “E” shaped plan. Although it is carefully aligned with the existing volume and clad in the same brick, the new block nevertheless assertively declares its modernity in the play of suspended volumes in light and shade.

Architects: King Roselli Architetti
Client: Pontificial Lateran University
Location: Rome, Italy
Collaborators: Giandomenico Florio, Ulich Grosse, Christina Hoffmann, Arianna Nobile, Enrica Testi, Katia Scarioni, Toyohiko Yamaguchi
Project chief: Andrea Ricci
Building cost: 7m Euros
Interior Cost: 1m Euros
Materials: Concrete
Project Start: 2004
Project Complete: 2006
Photographers: Santi Caleca (SC), José King (JK), King Roselli Architetti (KR)