• Location: Magdeburg, Germany

• Design Team: KARO* (Antje Heuer, Stefan Rettich, Bert Hafermalz);

• Participation Process: Architektur+Netzwerk (Sabine Eling-Saalmann)

• Collaborators: Christian Burkhardt, Gregor Schneider, Mandy Neuenfeld

• Project Partners: Bürgerverein Salbke, Fermersleben, Westerhüsen e.V.

• Structural Engineering: Michael Kurt

• Lighting Design: Jürgen Meier (architektur&medien)

• Consulting: Ruth Gierhake

• Client: City of Magdeburg

• Funding: Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development (BMVBS)/Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), ExWoSt Program

• Program: Temporary open-air library and participatory public space activation; reuse of facade elements from a modernist department store

• Urban study: 2004–2005

• “Lesezeichen” action: Oct. 2005

• Design and participation: 2007–2008

• Construction: Nov. 2008 – June 2009

[Text description translated from the project statement on the official website of KARO – All rights to the content belong to the original author]

The “Lesezeichen Salbke” is a model project of the BBSR (Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development) within the ExWoSt research field Innovations for Family- and Age-Friendly Urban Neighborhoods. In the shrinking Magdeburg district of Salbke, a temporary open-air library was erected for two days on the vacant lot of the former local library. It served as a starting point for a participatory and process-oriented urban revitalization. The foundation of the initiative was not spatial or architectural interventions, but rather cultural practices aimed at establishing and organizing social relationships. The “literary” piece of urban furniture is now a visible sign of a process shaped by loops of communication and interaction.

The strategy of “Trial City” (Stadt auf Probe) served as a medium for functional development and social integration. The formal design was negotiated in a public on-site design workshop, and the favored design was realized as a 1:1 scale temporary model on the vacant lot in order to test its acceptance and everyday usability during a public reading festival.

During the implementation of the design, materials from the facade of a former Horten department store slated for demolition were salvaged and reused. In this context, the project stands not only for the energy-conscious upcycling of building materials, but also for the rehabilitation of elements of post-war modernist architecture.

The project was exhibited in several national and international exhibitions, including “Find the Gap” on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin, the “Talking Cities” exhibition at the opening of the Coal Washing Plant at Zollverein in Essen, the 11th International Architecture Biennale in the German Pavilion in Venice, the “REALSTADT” exhibition at Kraftwerk Mitte in Berlin, and the exhibition for the DAM Prize at the German Architecture Museum in Frankfurt/Main.

An informal citizen-run library with around 40,000 books has since been established in a formerly vacant storefront in Salbke.

The “Lesezeichen Salbke” was awarded the European Prize for Urban Public Space and the Brit Insurance Design Award in the Architecture category.

“Lesezeichen for Salbke” is one of 27 model initiatives in the ExWoSt research field Innovations for Family- and Age-Friendly Urban Neighborhoods funded by the German Federal Ministry and the BBSR (Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development).

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Image rights © Anja Schlamann

KARO* - project website