A proposal by Nissen Richards Studio to refurbish and extend The Wiener Holocaust Library in London’s Bloomsbury Conservation Area has now been granted planning permission by The London Borough of Camden. The scheme will see the refurbishment of part of the existing Library and the creation of a new-build, 145 sq m, two storey extension, containing a new gallery and learning space. The new architectural vision for the site will also see the creation of a ground-floor courtyard and a first-floor roof garden. Nissen Richards Studio has additionally been commissioned to create the interpretation and exhibition design for the new gallery space, along with further interpretative elements to be set throughout the existing building and new courtyard and garden spaces.

The Library was seeking to increase learning spaces and create a new permanent gallery – in addition to its existing temporary exhibition gallery – in order to present rotating, curated displays drawn from its million-plus collection of published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony. Nissen Richards Studio was commissioned to re-think the Library’s overall spatial sequencing and to plan for the provision of new spaces, as well as to create the exhibition design and interpretation for the new gallery area.

The new building will be composed of a ground floor learning space, with access to a new courtyard area abridging the existing building, plus a first floor gallery looking out onto a new roof garden on the same level. The 30-seater, ground floor learning space will be for the use of young people at GCSE level and above, as well as providing additional, flexible space for the Library. The first floor gallery, meanwhile, will feature displays that highlight key documents and objects in the Library’s collections, as well as telling the story of the Library from the 1920s in Germany until today.

The new-build extension will be topped by a series of sculpted rooflights to allow soft, north-facing daylight into the interior, whilst external cladding will feature an etched metal abstracted pattern, taken from the concept of books, documents and shelving and inspired by the Library’s identity as a place of research and ongoing learning.

The new gallery exhibition will seek to explain the role of the library through history: why it was set up, what acts is has performed (and continues to perform) and why it has been a historically important place. It will communicate the philosophy of the Library and connect to the Library’s core values and purpose, namely to support historical and family research and learning and engagement, teaching about the Holocaust and the Nazi era.