Institute Building of the University of Cologne
This building houses the offices of four branches of law: the Institutes for International and Foreign Private Law, for the Law of the European Communities, for International Law and Foreign Public Law, and for Foreign and International Criminal Law. The site, located on the edge of Cologne's university district, is small. Urban planning here aims for a more open, less dense development. To achieve this, the library (designed for 300,000 volumes) was built three stories underground. It receives some daylight through the sunken courtyard at its northern boundary and is surmounted at ground level by the single-storey reading room wing, which includes a catalog room and circulation desk. The eight-storey institute building is connected to the main entrance hall, which also serves as a circulation hub. The institute floors have identical layouts, containing offices for professors, assistants, doctoral candidates, secretaries, and librarians. A seminar room with an adjoining roof terrace completes the top floor.
