Architecturally, the library combines a massed concrete structure with a light diaphanous envelope. This juxtaposition not only informs the building’s formal character, but is also key to its ecological programme. Describing the impetus behind the design, David Nelson, the senior partner in charge, noted: “We realised that students would spend hundreds of hours in the library and wanted to provide them with the perfect environment to study – one which was animated by natural light and air.” Students can sit at the reading desks that run continuously around each floor plate and access the bibliographic collections which are housed in the four-storey central core. As the design progressed, the floor plates evolved into a series of undulating curves, which creates a formal dynamism and spacious double-height mezzanine spaces. The library’s aerodynamic water-drop shaped enclosure was developed to house the maximum amount of floor area within the minimum building envelope, remain in scale with the surrounding buildings, and allow landscaped courtyards on ether side of the library. Its unique cranial form has already earned the library the nickname – the ‘Berlin Brain.’