Studying under a starry night sky at Uppsala University
Designing a 300m² reading room with a dark, calming atmosphere, and the acoustic ceiling that made the starry effect possible.
The reading room at Ekonomikum, where Rockfon Color-all in dark with fibre-optic stars overhead creates the effect of studying under a night sky.
A reading room unlike any other
When Uppsala University's Ekonomikum needed a new 300m² reading room, the brief broke from convention. Instead of the typical bright, white study space, Sweco Architects designed a dark, underground shelter where students could concentrate in calm, dimmed surroundings.
Before entering, students take off their shoes. Inside, the lighting drops to 500 lux at the desks, 300 lux around the workstations, and just 100 lux across the rest of the space. A "campfire", 14 specially designed armchairs around a gas fire, sits at the centre. Built-in seating cabinets line the walls. The atmosphere is deliberately removed from the outside world.
Pulling it off depended on one design element above all: the ceiling.
A dark ceiling that disappears overhead
The room needed acoustic absorption, given that 300m² of concentrated study with significant hard wooden surfaces would otherwise reverberate uncomfortably. But the bigger challenge was visual. For the starry sky effect the architect wanted, the ceiling had to read as a continuous dark surface with no grid, no shine and no visual interruption to the illusion of looking up at the night sky.
A standard white acoustic ceiling would have destroyed the concept. The wrong dark ceiling, with a visible grid or any sheen, would have done the same.
Project info
Project name
Ekonomikum Library at Uppsala University
Location
Uppsala, Sweden
Architecture
Installation
Photography
Ola Österling
Download images
Built-in seating cabinets along the walls, with Rockfon Color-all overhead keeping the acoustic environment calm regardless of seating position.
Fibre-optic cables threaded through Rockfon Color-all tiles, creating pinpoints of starlight against the dark acoustic surface.
Color-all’s dark matte, non-reflective surface, allowing the fibre-optic stars overhead to be clearly visible.
Color-all in dark, with fibre-optic stars
Sweco Architects specified Rockfon Color-all in a dark colour, installed with an invisible grid that disappears overhead. The matte, non-reflective surface gives the ceiling the depth needed for the starry sky effect to read convincingly.
Thin fibre-optic cables were threaded through the acoustic tiles to create the stars. The ceiling absorbs sound across the full 300m² while the cables emit pinpoints of light overhead.
"It has been important to have a dark suspended ceiling, which just disappears and creates a feeling of infinity. With Rockfon Color-All, we have got everything important to us, a sound-absorbing acoustic ceiling solution with an invisible grid that does not give off any shine. We've run very thin fibreglass cables through the acoustic ceiling panels, which creates the effect of sitting under a starry sky," said Jonas Kjellander, Sweco Architects.
Outside the reading room, in the bright social space for conversations and video conferencing, Rockfon Blanka with M-edge handles the acoustics.
The same performance with a lighter visual character.
“With Rockfon Color-All, we have got everything important to us, a sound-absorbing acoustic ceiling solution with an invisible grid that does not give off any shine”
Jonas Kjellander
— Sweco Architects
The social space next door for conversations and video conferencing.
Rockfon Blanka providing acoustic comfort in a brighter, more open setting.
A space designed to remove every distraction
Ekonomikum's reading room is a study environment built around quiet, calm and concentration. The starry sky overhead gives students a space to think under, with the acoustic ceiling making both the design and the focus possible.
Also designing a learning space where the ceiling needs to support the activity below? Get in touch, and together we'll find the right solution.
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