Helsingborg Library - Composition in the Spirit of the École des Beaux-Arts

Abstract: This project is an examination on the relevance of the compositional principles used in the École des Beaux-Arts, mainly during its prime in the 19th century. The relevance of the principles will be tested through the design of an extension to the Helsingborg City Library. The work is divided into three sections. The first section is an examination on the École des Beaux-Arts. I will examine the architectural spirit of the school and which compositional principles that were predominant. The second part is an analysis of the principles in relation to buildings related to the École des Beaux-Arts. This step will help me grasp how the principles were and can be used. The third step is to design an extension to the Helsingborg Library. In the design process I will test if the Beaux-Arts principles could be useful when designing a contemporary library.