Library

The new National Library located adjacent to the Presidential Palace in Astana is under construction. Geometrically it is composed of two spherical sections with different diameters. The lower part is an opaque façade and the other, a huge glass dome. The primary structure of the building consists of 9 differently shaped slab levels situated on concrete columns. Concrete cores are providing horizontal stiffness. The 20° inclined glass roof is located on various levels of the reinforced concrete structure and lowers towards the north, where the Presidential Palace is located. It has a span of over 90m and a rise of about 11m. A sufficient in-plane stiffness of the rectangular grid of the dome is achieved by the ”vierendeel” effect of the rigidly connected, and mainly bolted rectangular hollow sections. Furthermore the glazed roof is framed by a strong circumferential edge beam.
By means of a statically determined support, the roof grid and edge beam of the glazed dome remain largely independent of the concrete structure’s long-term and deformation behavior.