The Scientific Information Center and Academic Library, Research library in Katowice, Poland.
The Scientific Information Center and Academic Library, also known as CINiBA, is a research library in Katowice housed across seven floors in a modern building made of two interlocking cube-shaped blocks. It provides reading rooms, computer workstations, and access to electronic databases spread across its service levels.
The building came out of an architectural competition held in 2003 and was built between 2009 and 2012. It was the first library in Poland designed to be jointly run by two separate universities from the very start.
The library is shared by the University of Silesia and the University of Economics, bringing students from two institutions under one roof. Temporary exhibitions and public lectures are regularly held inside, making it a meeting point for academic life in Katowice.
The library is located in central Katowice and easy to reach by public transport or on foot from nearby landmarks. Inside, the floor layout is clearly marked, which makes moving between levels straightforward even on a first visit.
The building's facade has exactly 4004 windows, a number chosen deliberately during the design process. This grid of openings gives the exterior a texture that shifts depending on the light and the angle from which you look at it.
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