Architecture

In 1949, the Institute relocated to Heidelberg. It moved to its present site in Neuenheimer Feld with the completion of the original building, constructed between 1993 and 1996. Between 2004 and 2006, underground stacks expanded the library’s capacity.

In 2010, the Berlin-based firm Staab Architekten won the invited competition for an extension; planning began in 2013, and the building was completed in 2018. It was inaugurated on 26 April 2019. The three-storey extension provides 2,300 square metres of usable floor space and was realised as part of the Internationale Bauausstellung Heidelberg 2012–2022.

The extension stands opposite the original building as a freestanding volume; between the two, a courtyard enclosed on three sides forms the Institute’s new entrance. Visitors cross this courtyard before entering the glazed foyer, where the boundary between inside and outside is intentionally softened. The extension’s façade is clad in dark bronze anodised aluminium — restrained and abstract, and deliberately set apart from the lighter original building.

Inside, bright rooms with warm-toned ceramic and timber finishes receive visitors. The reception desk, the library circulation counter, and the entrances to the lecture hall and conference room are conceived as freestanding timber elements. In the original building, the Institute’s workspaces are arranged around the library and the rotunda. The former staircase was integrated into the rotunda; around it, reading alcoves, a lounge, a reading gallery, and an espresso bar create spaces for concentrated exchange, alongside meeting rooms, kitchenettes, and a roof terrace in the office wings.

The library holds around 720,000 volumes and more than 32,400 journal titles — the largest specialist legal library for public international law and European law in Europe.