Hasta La Ideas

News: Herzog & de Meuron has been chosen to design the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem after the initial competition winner was dismissed over a copyright dispute.

The Swiss firm won out against international architects Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano along with three Israeli architects – Kolker Kolker Epstein, Kimmel Eshkolot and Dina Amar and Avraham Korial.

Entrants to the relaunched competition were not asked to submit detailed plans for the building but instead underwent an interview with the competition jury. No images of the winning project are available yet.

Herzog & de Meuron’s appointment comes just four months after Israeli architect Rafi Segal was ousted from the job when one of his former colleagues at the Harvard School of Design challenged his ownership of the winning design.

Bing Wang said she and her company, HyperBina, had worked on Segal’s entry and should have been credited for their role when the announcement of the winner was made in September 2012.

Segal, who has has launched a legal challenge against the project backers’ decision in the the hope of being reinstated, said he had intended to name the full design team as soon as he had permission to publicise his win. A Jerusalem court is due to consider Segal’s claim on 8 May.

Construction recently started on two Herzog & de Meuron-designed projects in Europe – a football stadium in Bordeaux, France, and an outdoor bathing lake in Riehen, Switzerland. See all architecture by Herzog & de Meuron.

Other libraries we’ve reported on lately include Snøhetta’s completed a library at North Carolina State University featuring a robotic book retrieval system and a 3D printing workshop, while a library dedicated to design has recently opened in Seoul, South Korea. See all libraries.

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