Lawrence Technological University

Civil Engineering Department

CE Seminar III
Library of Alexandria

Instructor Presented by
Stefan Neuhaeuser Walid M Farahat
Location
 The Old Library
Alexander The Great and the Greek rule 332 B.C
Built 2000 years ago by Ptolemy II
Cultural center of the whole world
First university in the world
Archimedes and Eratosthenes studied there
Housed the largest collection of books in the ancient world
Burning of the ancient library
 The New Library

The idea of reviving the library in 1974

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
General Organization of the Alexandria Library (GOAL)
Snohetta Architects of Oslo, Norway (1987)
Hamza Consultants Giza, Egypt
 Construction of The New Library

Started in 1995
The Arab Contractors and Trevi did the foundation work
The Arab Contractors and Balfour Beatty built the
superstructure
Cost of 220 Millions US Dollars
 The New Library

 The same site of the ancient library

 Includes 3 Buildings
1. The Planetarium
2. Conference Center
3. The Library Building
 The Planetarium
 Used for astronomical shows
 Spherical shape building
 Semi sphere screen of 14 m (46 ft) diameter
 Ninety nine seats inclined to the back
The Planetarium
 The Conference Center
 Main hall of 1700 seats
 Three smaller halls of 300 seats each
 Three restaurants
 Exhibition areas
The Conference Center
The Main Library
 The Main Library
 Six total floors of height 4.2 m (14ft) each
 Four basement levels
 Cylindrical shape with radius of 160 m (525 ft)
 Oriented to minimize direct sunlight
 Designed for Estimated lifespan of 200 years
 Foundation Design

Fill
Silty Sand

Sand Stone
Silty Sand

Sand Stone

Section Through Foundation

 Foundation and Ground Work
 Excavation and dewatering
 599 bored piles of diameter 1,500 mm (59 in.)
 Jet grouting for ground improvement
 PC raft of thickness 200 mm (8in.)
 RC Raft construction [thickness ranges from 1.25
m (50 in.) to 2.4 m (100 in.)]
 Working platform 2m above the sea level
 Superstructure Design
 Waffle slab of depth 400 mm (16 in.) at top floors
 Waffle slab of depth 600 mm (24 in.) at lower floors
 Columns forms 14.2 m (47 ft) x 9.6 (32 ft) m bays
 Two additional RC walls to resist lateral loads
 No expansion joints
Superstructure Design

Precast RC Girders Roof System

Library Features
The World’s Largest Open Reading Room
(2,000 Readers)
10,000 Rare Books
Library Wall
Library Fence
 Conclusions
 Reviving a historian building
 The rule of UNESCO
 Benefits of globalization in engineering
Thank You