Mecanoo's "People's Palace" — on opening in 2013 the largest public library in Europe, with 31,000 m² across ten floors.
Mecanoo's "People's Palace" — on opening in 2013 the largest public library in Europe, with 31,000 m² across ten floors. Four stacked rectangular volumes are wrapped in the now-iconic filigree façade of interlocking metal rings that nods to the city's Jewellery Quarter. Inside, eight cylindrical rotundas organise the collections around shifting patterns of light and shadow.
As a member of the Mecanoo team, Patrick worked on the detailing of the rotunda reading rooms and on the coordination of the façade rings with the structural engineers — a seemingly decorative skin that is in fact a layered, prefabricated system. He also worked on the way the cantilevered terraces meet the public realm of Centenary Square — one of the places where architecture and urbanism had to genuinely fit together.
