he City of Stockholm is holding a two-stage architectural competition, the first stage of which was an open international competition to build an extension to the world famous Stockholm Public Library designed by Gunnar Asplund . The intention is that the competition will result in a high-class architectonic composition of which the Asplund library is an integral part in a combined library function. The library will quadruple the space currently available to the general public and an extension for the reading and learning of today and tomorrow will be built next to the present building with its special qualities and unique values. The library will become a lively public building open for all round-the-clock and will stimulate meetings, discussions, literary experiences and study.

The aim of the first stage of the competition was to find concepts and ideas to develop in stage two. The six proposals chosen shall be developed in stage two of the competition. Experiences gained and the six proposals provided the prerequisites and programme basis for the project competition in stage two. Prior to the second stage, the jury, in consultation with the City of Stockholm, will draw up a new competition brief with the final directives for the further development of the chosen proposals.

The competition began on 1 June 2006. Never before has a competition for the entire world's architects been so accessible. About 6,000 architects from approximately 120 countries registered for the competition. The jury approved 1,170 entries making this competition one of the world's largest architectural competitions of all time.

The jury consists of:

• Göran Långsved, ex-CEO, Stockholm City Development Administration, chairman of the jury
• Karin Jonsson, Project Manager, City of Stockholm's Executive Office
• Inga Lundén, City Librarian, Stockholm City Cultural Administration
• Sten Wetterblad, Executive Director, Stockholm City Real Estate Administration
• Ingela Lindh, Executive Director, Stockholm City Planning Administration, architect MSA
• Per Kallstenius, City Architect, architect SAR/MSA, Stockholm City Planning Administration
• Maija Berndtson, City Librarian, Helsinki
• Jan Söderlund, Professor and architect SAFA, Helsinki
• Christer Larsson, Director of City Planning, architect SAR/MSA, Malmö
• Kjetil Thorsen, architect MNAL, appointed by the Swedish Association of Architects
• Adam Caruso, architect, appointed by the Swedish Association of Architects

The general premise in the brief was that proposals -that include the partial or complete demolition of the existing annexes- must have added new qualities that could compensate for the loss of historical, cultural and landscape values. One of the starting-points of the jury's work has therefore been to identify the cases in which these criteria have been fulfilled. The expectation in the competition brief was for an extension that had its very own special architectonic value that interacted with the world-famous Asplund building and that could put Stockholm on the stage of world architecture. The jury has furthermore ascertained that the extension must leave its own mark on the townscape and clearly elucidate its function as a new public building in Stockholm.

The following six proposals have been unanimously selected by the jury to go through to the next stage of the competition. In May 2007, the architects concerned –which remain anonymous- will receive new, detailed instructions to develop their respective proposals:

This proposal is based on a man-made ending of Stockholmsåsen –the ridge in which the library is located. Without trying to imitate the landscape, it makes its own interpretation of the hillside, which respects the hillside's shape and height by creating entirely new urban facades. The proposal subordinates itself to the Asplund building and is, in many ways, an urban hybrid between landscape and building which is easily recognizable with a character all of its own without any known predecessors.

The large inner terraced room is very beautiful with its leaning pillars and varying shape, into which the light filters through skylights. The fact that the building is sunken reinforces not just the design of the room but also illustrates the architects' awareness of the importance of restricting the scale of the building.

This project attempts to achieve two main objectives, to make the ridge accessible and to replace the impractical annexes with a well-functioning, continuously built-up library component. The aim of the project is not to create a new classical urban space. The meandering roof landscape/urban floor is a townscape that links the traditional street space to the park and can guide people up onto the ridge. The library is omnipresent during the walk up the slope, which reinforces its expression as a public library. The building is an object in its own right and does not therefore compete with the Asplund building or with other projects in the vicinity. The terracing creates opportunities for views and for providing much of the library with natural daylight.

The cut into the ridge is a very strong and unique concept that reinforces the effect of the ridge as it will enhance the perception of its entire height. Even though basically all the buildings on the site remain, the Asplund building is placed in a new context and its monumental character is strengthened. The project is successful in its attempt to contrast with the Asplund building, creating a kind of Yin-Yang situation. The differences complement each other and reinforce the character of each of the various buildings. The new building has such a unique expression that it becomes the project's defining characteristic. It will represent both itself as a building and the library as an institution. A visitor to the new part of the library will have to walk through a square, pass glass facades and landscape before entering the library. This will give him/her an idea of the library's construction and what is going on in the library before even entering the building. The entrance area also leans a little towards the entrance and further sharpens the senses prior to the visit to the library. This can be interpreted as a variant of the entrance into the rotunda from Sveavägen, as designed by Asplund. The new library's U-shape allows visitors to follow what is going on in other parts of the library, which is very positive.

This proposal creates an entirely new composition together with the Asplund building, Stockholmsåsen and Läkarhuset. The north face of the ridge is detached and becomes a key part of the library—the rounded outdoor area associates to the rotunda in the Asplund building. The excavated face can be transformed from an abandoned interspace to a high-quality park that will be omnipresent in all parts of the new library extension. The narrow, tall building towards Odenplan relates to the 1960s complex to the west in both volume and height, whilst at the same time providing a backdrop to the Asplund building. The largest volume of the extension is pushed up against the south-west corner of the site, which is well motivated since it then has a relationship to the existing taller buildings facing Odenplan and does not compete with the Asplund building. There are parallels to the Asplund library in the lightness and richness of detailing, even though it is much more abstract than the existing building. The ethereal lightness of the new extension reinforces, if anything, the concrete expression of the Asplund building.

The concept of this proposal is to ‘harden' the north-east corner of the hill and make this eroded side into a backdrop to the Asplund building in a very elegant fashion. Most of the new library extension lies under the hill and two of the annexes are retained. Acting as a backdrop to the existing urban landscape and creating a new park that relates to the existing one facing Sveavägen, the area is given many new qualities. The possibility of walking on a new intermediate level in the park, on the roof of the new library extension is very attractive. The connection to the Asplund building over the corner is very elegant. Despite its setback position, the proposal exposes its facades both towards Sveavägen and, via an extended entrance area, towards Odengatan.

This proposal lies primarily behind the existing composition, keeping three of the annexes and locating another one on Spelbomskans torg. The concept itself is simple, shows respect for the existing composition. The project does not alter the existing urban composition to any great degree but instead manifests the broken façade towards Odengatan by adding another annexe. The project ”samples” Asplund's architecture in a witty and conceptual way and uses projects drawn by Gunnar Asplund himself, incorporated into the presentation. If implemented, these references will of course not be the project's distinguishing characteristic but will need to be given an expression that is feasible to implement using current construction methods.