05/11/2025
Are we still building libraries for the past — or for the future?
Our design for a new university library in Podgorica, Montenegro, refuses the easy answer. It doesn’t romanticize tradition, and it doesn’t fall blindly for futurism. Instead, it asks a tougher question:
How do we create spaces that protect knowledge while inviting exchange and transformation?
The architecture deliberately plays with tension. A clear cubic form signals stability and seriousness — yes, knowledge matters. But a permeable façade breaks the rigidity, opening the building to the city, softening its edges, and letting the outside world in. This is not an ivory tower; it’s a civic stage.
Placed between University Park and Đorđe Balašević Park, the library becomes a literal and symbolic connector — part academic institution, part urban living room. The rooftop garden doesn’t just beautify the structure; it extends the public realm upward, blending nature and culture instead of forcing a choice.
Even the structure questions conventions. Heavy concrete grounds the building with endurance — but above, a wooden roof supported by a grid of slender columns brings warmth, lightness, and transparency. Knowledge may be built on foundations, but its future lives in openness.
Daylight funnels through sculptural skylights, emphasizing clarity and orientation. By day, the volume appears disciplined and precise. By night, it glows — a beacon for learning that doesn’t shut down when the sun sets.
If architecture reflects values, this library makes a clear statement:
We don’t need to choose between permanence and progress. We can design for both — and invite the community to grow with us.
The real question now is:
Will our future public buildings dare to be this honest?