Library Buildings around the World

Christoph Gulizzi Architecte, Marseille – France
http://www.gulizzi.com
Libraries:
Extension Lycée Louis Blériot, Bibliothèque, Marignane, Marseille – France 2004 - 2010
Extension Lycée Alphonse Daudet, Bibliothèque, Tarascon (Arles) – France 2009
PACA (Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur), 3.200 m², € 7.200.000
The double extension of the Alphonse Daudet Lycée in Tarascon raises the question of responsibility when building on a remarkable
site
- Lycée built in 1933 by Gaston Castel (Grand Prix de Rome), listed as a historical monument;
- Kilmaine barracks, site listed as a historical monument, built in 1718, by the architect Desfour.
The building operation considers the memory of the site and territorial identity as narrative elements, as an extension of its
morphology. In a site steeped in history, within a team whose role is to pass on our secular and republican values, there is no room
for arrogance and pompous architectural features. Spatial order is achieved by incorporating programmatic and contextual
constraints, within a unique process of shape generation. The facades comply with the laws of barrack composition: podium,
buttress, minerality, succession of sober openings, following a repetitive cutting module, in a subtle allegory of the loophole. Pitted,
coloured concrete, deployed over the entire construction, betrays the vanity of the artifices of architectural design and pays homage
to traditional military constructions, massive, robust, sober and efficient. No plastic feats or material preciosity. The buildings,
armed with abstraction, turn towards the only permanent elements of the site. Only tactics, specific devices, no feigned mannerisms.
Two considerations have given rise to the building’s design:
-one involves the status of image and its symbolic efficiency in space mastering and in crystallising intentions;
- the other concerns the secular tectonic tradition and semantic use of construction as a vector of cohesion and readability of the
constructed object.
All is played out in the ambivalent perception of the buildings. Spelled out in a singular, monolithic and mineral shape. Their
billhook fashioned geometry fulfils their silent forms, proclaiming them as a system, in perfect symbiosis with the site. How to make
a building credible in an era flooded with icons, counterfeits, as in the Ventimille market? Not in the art of cloning erected as a
communications strategy. Not by using and abusing architectural processes where conventional architectural writing is enough to
belong, the implication and recognition of an egocentric cultural system void of meaning. The architectural project is like a beautiful
woman, invention keeps the flame alive. It is commonplace to say that the building is LEB. Nowadays, there are OCDs (obsessive
compulsive disorders) in our profession, if you throw LEB at an engineering office, they will generally answer “external insulation,
cladding and wood boiler”. (http://www.arcfreeze.com)
Jean & Aline Harari architectes, Paris – France
http://www.harari-architectes.com
Libraries :
Bibliothèque Abbe Gregoire à Blois- Bibliothèque Municipale et Universitaire , Blois – France 1997
Heams & Michel Architectes, St. André de la Roche, Biot – France
Nicolas Heams, Benjamin Michel
http://www.heamsetmichel.over-blog.com
Libraries :
Médiathèque Four Banal, La Turbie – France 2010
100 sqf.
In the old village of La Turbie, close to the Trophy of August, we were asked to transform an old abandoned oven in a mediatheque.
The realization of such a program, in this particular place, only composed of village houses, is atypical. The plot is surrounded by
four existing buildings, and so, the majority of the elevations are blind. The surface of the plot is 100 m 2 and half of this surface is
occupied by two old ovens. In this project, we propose to play with the contrast between subjects, textures and feelings felt in the
streets of the village and those that we would find in a mediatheque. While respecting the history of this place that is so important for
the inhabitants, this project is as atypical as the program and its geographical situation. The old ovens are completely demolished to
create a maximum of surface. Their memory is preserved by the projection of their footprint on the ground. In this small place, we
designed mobile and ludic systems to answer to the complicated program and its different functions. Along the peripheral walls are
nested linear racks, illuminated by tubes of light embedded in the wall, in a high position. These shelves can receive books and also
small colored seats and caster boxes. A large piece of furniture divides the space, playing with the different perspectives. It offers a
desk and two computers. Sliding partitions with magnetized surface can be used for posting, creating animation on the wall. A
partition on casters nestled in the wall of the toilets can be opened, doubling the surface of posting. This partition can also acts as a
projection screen. A large glass roof illuminates the reading areas with natural light. Artificial lights in a shape of drops water
materialize the ludic space that is at the place of the old ovens. The pieces of furniture are all in white enameled wood. This colour
was chosen to increase the feeling of space and to contrast with the colours of the architecture of the village. Three colours were
chosen for the furniture which punctuates the space. A glassy wall is printed of quotations of famous authors who wrote about La
Turbie. This glassy wall comes in superposition of the existing stone facade, writing a new page in the history of the village, without
disclaiming the past. (http://www.archdaily.com)
Hesters et Oyon, Paris – France
Jacques Hesters, Brigitte Oyon
http://www.hestersoyon.com
Libraries :
Médiathèque Ulysse, Saint-Denis – France 2011
….La médiathèque est implantée au cœur du quartier Franc Moisin, à proximité du lycée Suger. Cet équipement affiche sa façade
principale sur la placette crée à l’angle de l’avenue Le-Roy-des-Barres et du cours du ru de Montfort. Le site choisi offre la
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