During the 2016 summer semester, Matthias Ballestrem taught a seminar titled AUGUSTA as part of the ‘Building construction and design’ course at the Technische Universität Berlin. Students were asked to create a design based on the space plan for the service building registered by the Herzog August Bibliothek. There were no specifications for the site. The objective was to interpret and develop the library not as an ensemble of buildings but as a contextual and physical network.

The 19 designs were on display in the Zeughaus of the Herzog August Bibliothek between 7 December 2016 and 1 February 2017. The designs were also published in the companion volume Was wäre, wenn...? Studentische Entwürfe für eine Erweiterung der Herzog August Bibliothek (What if …? Student designs for an extension to the Herzog August Bibliothek), edited by Peter Burschel, Matthias Ballestrem, Kai Nikolaus Grüne and Marie von Lüneburg, 164 pages with colour illustrations, ISBN 978-3-88373-528-3.