Cottbus is a small town near the border between Poland and the former East Germany. Its university campus is still dominated by a uniform post-war physiognomy. These new buildings speak of the modernisation its infrastructure underwent in the 1990s, a process that included the competition leading to the commission for the library. In contrast to the winning proposal of two juxtaposed prisms, changes to the brief and the deletion of one of the units led the studio to reconsider the whole approach. The final project will be built as a volume with an apparently random perimeter aimed at being a landmark within the anonymous background in which it is placed. With the irregular edges of an amoeba, the building rises up in a welcoming gesture to the campus while disclosing its most slender side, like an independent tower, to those approaching from the town. The floor slabs are cut off differently on each storey, leading to a broad spectrum of spaces that range from tall-height general reading rooms to smaller environments for concentrated study. A 7 metre wide spiral staircase connects each of the levels, enhancing the students’ orientation and encounters....[+]