![Regional Library and Knowledge Center / Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft. - Windows, Facade](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94ea/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03f6/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411238)
-
Architects: Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft.
- Area: 13180 m²
- Year: 2010
-
Photographs:Tamás Bujnovszky
Text description provided by the architects. Pécs, a multicultural city with a rich history, was the European Capital of Culture in 2010. For the location of the new library a remote, run down, undeveloped plot was chosen. This meant the new building did not have the constraint or possibility to directly match other buildings. During the design process, I aimed to dynamically synthesize the dualities which appear in many ways. In the building a “beehive” represents the ideological center and refers to permanence. This is a place of abstract thinking: a metaphor for the freedom of knowledge and also, in reverse, for the knowledge of freedom.
![Regional Library and Knowledge Center / Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft. - Image 9 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94ed/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03f7/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411260)
I see beauty in the idea that my response for a knowledge center is a building where the focus is not on concrete, permanently changing knowledge but on the possibility of thinking: in-other-words, an empty space which can be filled with the thoughts of the people in it.
![](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94aa/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03e0/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411285)
The ground floor reception room is horizontally open, and the upper floors are, in accordance with their activities, rather introverted. The extensive “beehive”, un-functional in any common sense, connects these differently characterized spaces. In terms of forms, the inner, abstract space is analogous, archaic and organic.
![Regional Library and Knowledge Center / Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft. - Image 4 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94d9/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03f1/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411246)
The spaces surrounding the “beehive” are the result of rational planning; with their flexibility they express the possibility of change. The facades are defined by the airy, white ceramic-coated glass, which represents the latest technology. The inner surface of the “beehive” is an independent work of art: The Zsolnay ceramic tiles, with their world-famous eosin coating, refer to the use of local historical characteristics.
![Regional Library and Knowledge Center / Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft. - Handrail](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94dc/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03f2/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411268)
The dual-use of material is intentional. It is important that an architectural work can be read in different ways: it should be local and international, stylish and traditional, historical and contemporary, but first of all have self-identity.
![Regional Library and Knowledge Center / Török és Balázs Építészeti Kft. - Image 8 of 30](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5015/94f1/28ba/0d5a/4b00/03f8/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414411258)