Project SheetScientists need to sleep too

Guesthouse, Dresden

Project Panel

Clients

Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Munich
User

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden
Effective Area

916 m²
Floor Area

1.444 m²
Floor Volume

4.830 m³
Completion

2012
Photos

Hans-Joachim Krumnow

Project PDF

With the fourth guest house on the campus of Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, a further element has been added to the ensemble of buildings. Being a guesthouse combined with a library, it joins and mediates the existing buildings with their varied purposes.

The building lies in the southern part of the grounds which is defined by the adjacent terraced public green spaces. This topography has prompted the principal spatial element, the library, terraced over three levels, with reading garden.

The institute offers a comprehensive and continuously growing programme for their guests. The new guest house provides four double and 17 single rooms.

The idea of the library is that of “one space” spanning over all levels and including voids. These voids, to which the working and reading galleries attach, are located around the entrance of the northern façade.
Thus the new lounge and reading areas look back to the existing institute building with its generous apertures. The glass walls separating the library from the corridors permit views in and out, visually joining the individual areas.
Included as part of the library are a basement storage space, two offices, a multipurpose room as well as a shared kitchen.
On each level, the exterior façade oriented towards the institute helps to establish direct visual and spatial relations between the institute building and the library.
Researchers need to sleep too.