This large treasure house, first building in a Speicherstadt concept of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, keeps six million books. It also contains photoworkshops, offices and meeting rooms, special archives, depots for inheritance and cold storage to accommodate the rich holdings of the State Library of Berlin, the Ibero-American Institute and the photo agency bpk.
The compact storing, filing, preserving and keeping on hand is the raison d’être of the building. Strict climatic control and absolute fire protection guard the contents. No direct natural light is permitted.

The plan of the building works like a grid city, with easy to reach places at short distances. The magazine workplaces and book elevators are located at indirectly lit inner courtyards of the four storey building. On the facade green natural stone in contrast to precast concrete slabs marks out the front bloc at the entrance hall. Vertical slabs of green stone that project on the east and west facades are casting rhythmical shadows, thus juxtaposing the permanence of the building to the hourly passing of time. The precious stone along the south facade will be recycled twice on the building with future extensions to double the size in 2035 + 2060.
The idea was to conceive a building for a long duration that could always tell a story in relation to its contents by contemplating the position of the sun.