Brightons Jubilee Library – Award Winning Architecture!

Anyone remember the old library in Brighton? I always loved the building, and whilst Im an avid library user, and would regularly drop in, somehow it didn’t really inspire me to take books and cd’s out on loan. Fast forward to 2005, and the opening of the new Jubilee Library and the experience is a totally different thing!

The old building, as with the old museum, was more a lovely time warp experience of what it must have been like as, perhaps a Second World War child evacuee, stepping through the doors of a slightly forbidding, very dusty and very antiquated institution. Something like being a character in an Arnold Bennett novel – perhaps the Five Towns Municipal library. A nice experience. But somehow I never left with books under my arm.

The development of the whole area in the Jubilee district was a major shot in the arm for the city – but no where was more successful, I would suggest, as the Jubilee Library. I know nothing about architecture – but I understand the fact that if a building is designed perfectly to suit its purpose then the whole project can be elevated to a glorious success.  As an end user I can vouch that for me personally the building is a hit, but I was interested to find out more about the critical success of the building amongst the Archictural powers that be – and I was delighted by their confirmation of the building’s prowess! Further to that a Google search on the building provided me with these heart warming facts about the building and its design and purpose:

• Winner of the South East England RIBA Award 2005. Operational project with the best design – 2005 PFI Awards. Named BSJ/CIBSE Major Project of the Year. Commended as an ‘exemplary piece of urban development’ by CABE. And on the shortlist for both the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award, and the RIBA Stirling Prize.
• There is a conventional air-conditioning chiller unit in the library’s plant room to cap the internal temperature at 25°C in summertime, but even during the occasional heatwaves experienced this year, the majority of rooms stayed below this temperature without the chiller being called into operation. The overall cooling effect achieved by passive means is put at 4-5 degrees lower than the ambient external temperature and the thermal sink caused by this exposed concrete is a vital part of the building’s passive ventilation system.
• “The library incorporates 1200 x 260mm Termodeck precast hollowcore slabs in the ceilings of the rooms on either side of the central atrium”, says David Selvage from Fulcrum, the organisation responsible for the award winning air conditioning desing of the building. “In summer, air is pumped through the Termodeck to cool temperatures inside the building at night, which during the day are kept to a comfortable level partly by the effect of stored ‘coolth’ and partly by passive heat exchange with the exposed Termodeck planks and insitu mass in the building’s centre.”
• Heating bills during winter months are further reduced by the library’s magnificent south-facing glass facade, with louvres specially angled to allow in winter sun but deflect it in the summer.
• The library’s loos use rainwater to flush!

I still go into the libray a lot – more so than before. Inside it is light airy and attractive – something in the design just draws you in there and encourages you to linger and explore – adn yes, now I all to often stagger out under the weight of books and cd’s – a testament to the success of the architects and the design teams involved in creating this fantastic building!

Jubilee Library is only one of many buildings we are proud of in Brighton and Brighton Short Breaks welcomes visitors to explore our city and see what makes us Brightonians so proud of our home place!

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