Sainte-Geneviève Library

The Library of Sainte-Geneviève is located on the Place du Panthéon in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, as an early example of cast iron construction a significant work of Henri Labrouste who built the library from 1843 to 1851 according to his plans. For the first time a library was not designed as an extension of a monastery or a castle in France, but as a reference library, which should be accessible to the public. Le Corbusier described the building as the first step on the way to "modern architecture".

The library now contains about two million documents from all fields of knowledge. It emerged from the fundus of the monastery of the same books, which dates back to the 6th century and was one of the most important and largest monasteries in Paris.

Construction

The always to be observed in the construction of libraries fire danger lay in the 19th century suggest the use of new building material iron. Most library buildings from this period include iron structures that are not visible but are located or within secondary rooms such as books magazines. In Labrouste the iron, however, is visible almost staged, the design and function of the building can be seen. In the first few responses earned him a inter alia, the criticism of Gottfried Semper, who accused him of having " mounted unfortunate visible [ iron ] roof " in his library Sainte -Geneviève one.

The façade of the Italian Renaissance contributes to the parapet of the boxes in the reading room the names of 810 famous poets, thinkers and researchers. Behind the name plates are the bookshelves.

Left and right of the vestibule protected from light on the ground floor the books magazines, a collection of rare books, prints, manuscripts and the administrative offices. The separate staircase is at the end of the vestibule at the back of the building. While it is relatively dark in the vestibule still, the staircase is evident with every step more.

The overlying 1780 m² large rectangular reading room covers the entire upper floor and is divided along the center by eighteen iron columns. The tall, light-filled reading room measures 80 m in length, 17 m in width and 15 m in height. In the eighteen stone pedestals rest cast iron, fluted iron columns, which are formed into sheets and bear the hall ceiling, two parallel barrel vaults. The vaults are externally covered by an iron gable roof. The shear forces of the two barrel vaults catch stone pilasters on the inside of the building. The walls have been appointed to the height of 5 m with books. In the height of 2.5 m, a gallery runs around the room, which can be reached by four corner stairs. Walk-in bookshelves below the gallery create small spaces between the outer wall and the reading room, which gives access to further narrow stairs. The books transport from the magazine into the reading room via two narrow spiral stairs to the two building corners. The reading room is illuminated with sunlight from high side windows, originally a gas lighting was installed in the reading room. Since a conversion of the tables in 1930, the Reading Room has 700 jobs. All ornaments as well as the stilted chairs with low back rest are designed by Labrouste.

Gallery

Floor plan of the ground floor

Basilican floor plan of the first floor to the reading room

Section through the reading room: sheets of iron construction for the barrel vault and iron roof construction

Cast iron roof rack

Movies

• The Library of Sainte-Geneviève. Documentation, France, 2009, 26:15 min, Director: Juliette Garcias, production: Arte France, Les Films d' Ici, Row: architecture, German Original Air Date: October 30, 2011 Summary of arte.
• Hugo Cabret. Feature film, USA, 2011, 127 min Directed by: Martin Scorsese. The twelve- year-old Hugo Cabret reads with Isabelle about the beginnings of the film at the Bibliothèque Sainte -Geneviève, which there acts as a " Library of the Film Academy " (from 69 minutes).