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From the jury's report:
The building has gone from being almost a built landscape in stage one, where the profile of the ridge transcended into a roof with light-shafts, to now assuming more the character of a building. This is particularly true of the connection to the hill by the Asplund building and the facade facing Odengatan, where complete sections have been raised and made into proper building facades. All in all, this has made the building’s expression less clear and not worked to its advantage. The concept of being a hybrid between building and hill has basically been lost.
The new main entrance is now clearly marked in a forecourt that is directly accessible from Odengatan on the same level. The previous elegance of the facades and the assured transition to the Asplund building has however been replaced by more demanding building volumes void of these relationships. Half of the fourth wing is still concealed in an assured manner. In the entrance square, the Asplund building is also given a new entrance that complements the underground link between the library components. The entrance is still somewhat unclear, however.
In the first stage of the competition, the jury was unsure how the roof could be used and the authors have clearly indicated that it should be accessible and could be populated. This gives a more lively impression in the illustrations. The jury deems however that the complex roof landscape with skylights, steps and ramps with rails is not sufficiently credible to be able to bring this kind of city life adjacent to Observatorielunden.
The coherent library area with its terraces still has its expression but has been developed. The inner combined space is attractive, more articulated and better-lit than in the first stage of the competition. The terraced library is a tried-and-tested concept for modern libraries but at the same time creates inflexibility in the plan that can be detrimental to the large-scale integration of media, which is one of the key aspects of this new library. Movement patterns will also be more restrained and there will be a sharp contrast between the large terraced area and the deep, poorly lit inner spaces.
To their credit, the authors have incorporated the jury’s comments and made the inner plan easier for visitors to grasp and find their way around. It is now clearer to visitors how they should move towards the main staircase and the lifts in order to then use the stairs between the different terraced levels. This will on the other hand limit more spontaneous patterns of movement to a certain extent.
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