Library Buildings around the World

atelier d´architecture King Kong, Bordeaux – France
http://www.kingkong.fr
Libraries:
Médiathèque Podensac (Dep. Gironde, Reg. Aquitaine) – France 2012
surface : 1 233 m², coût ttc : 2 040 000 €, calendrier : livrée en août 2012
Médiathèque Grand M, Toulouse – France – 2012
1.200 m², € 6.000.000
Awards :
Prix d´architecture Agora 2012
Ce projet d'un coût global de 6,185 m€, dont nous révélions l'image, en avant-première, dans notre page des Jeudis de l'architecture
(notre édition du 17 septembre) devrait « donner accès à la lecture pour le plus grand nombre et aux nouvelles technologies de
communication », selon Claude Touchefeu, adjointe au maire (PS) chargée de la solidarité et de la politique de la ville.
«Avec une surface de 1 400 m2, cet équipement constituera la plus grande bibliothèque du réseau de lecture publique de la ville », a
ajouté l'élue. « Les espaces intérieurs seront aménagés de telle manière que les publics peu ou pas accoutumés à la fréquentation
d'établissements culturels ne se sentent ni intimidés ni mal à l'aise, offrant dès l'entrée un espace d'exposition et des espaces de
lecture, des collections de CD et de DVD ainsi que de très nombreux postes multimédias », a précisé l'adjointe. L'étage abritera un
auditorium de 50 places permettant d'accueillir de petites formations musicales, d'assurer des projections, d'organiser conférences et
débats. Ce projet « innovant à plus d'un titre », selon Claude Touchefeu, salué aussi à droite par Roger Atsarias (Toulouse pour
tous), a été conçu par l'atelier d'architecture King Kong, lauréat d'un concours, en prenant en compte le développement durable. Le
parvis « se veut un lieu de convivialité et de rencontre », avec promenade, bancs, fontaine et « jardin de contemplation », ouvert s sur
les quartiers de Reynerie et Bellefontaine. La Ville a sollicité hier une aide de plus de 3 m€ de l'Union européenne (au titre du Feder),
soit la moitié du coût global, et d'un demi-million de la région. L'état, au travers de l'Anru (agence nationale de la rénovation
urbaine) devrait participer à hauteur de 961 603€. Ce projet fait partie des 14 actions du projet urbain intégré éligible au Feder.
(http://www.ladepeche.fr) 26.09.2009
Dans le cadre du Grand Projet de Ville (GPV) et de son Agenda 21, la Ville de Toulouse souhaite construire une bibliothèque dans le
quartier du Mirail. Cet équipement public s’inscrit dans le renforcement de l’offre culturelle dédiée aux habitants et constituera un
point fort de l’amélioration du cadre de vie. (http://www.oppidea.fr)
Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, Paris – France
http://www.lacatonvassal.com
Grand Prix National d´Architecture 2008, France
Libraries:
School of Architecture (Library), Nantes – France 2009
27.580 m², € 17.750.000
In building a structure of great capacity, the project design comes up with a scheme capable of creating a set of rich and diverse
situations of interest to the School of architecture, the city and the landscape. Three decks at nine, sixteen and twenty-two meters
above the natural ground level, served by a gentle sloping external ramp, progressively put the ground surface of the city in touch
with the sky overhead. A lightweight steel structure redivides the height of these main levels. It enables the spaces devoted to the
program to be generously installed and creates a system adapted to their extension and their future evolution. Linked to the spaces
of the program are ample, double-height volumes with non-attributed functions, the transparent facades of which harness the sun's
rays and vouchsafe the indoor climate. On the initiative of the students, teachers or visitors, these spaces become the locus of possible
appropriations, events and programming. At any one moment the adaptation of the school to new interventions and its reconversion
are possible. Like a pedagogical tool, the project questions the program and the pratices of the school as much as the norms,
technologies and its own process of elaboration. Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal, architects with Florian De Pous, Frédéric
Hérard, and Julien Callot, Lisa Schmidt-Colinet, Isidora Meier, architects collaborators. (Lacaton)
Universitaire de Sciences de Gestion, Médiathèque, Université Montesquieu, Bordeaux – France 2006
€ 3.110.000
The PUSG (short for Pole Universitaire de Sciences de Gestion, Université Montesquieu) is situated in an old industrial area, a new
neighbourhood called La Bastide, on the eastern side of the Garonne River. The faculty consists out of 4 different departments, and
each department is housed in a separate part of the building. This is one of Lacaton-Vassal's first larger projects, and just like their
smaller commissions (private houses, social housing, and a small office ) this design is characterized by a 'less is more' method. With
a minimum use of materials and budget, they create a maximum of space and quality. They have proven that its perfectly possible to
apply this critical way of looking at architecture to large scale public buildings. (http://www.mimoa.eu)
Université Pierre Mendès France Grenoble, Arts & humains sciences, Library, Grenoble – France 1995 -
2001
5.062 m², € 3.078.000
The project is positionned in an alignment of new buildings that densify the eastern axis of the university. Set 13 meters apart, the
two buildings are linked by three aerial footbridges and by the continuity of the conservatories on the main south and north facades,
thereby giving the apprearance of a single volume. The building, intended for teaching activities, is transparent and opens onto the
campus and the chain of high mountains that encircles Grenoble. The main facades, consisting of small transparent conservatories,
creates a plant filter : bougainvilleas to the south, bamboo to the north. The conservatories are conceived according to the same
principles as those of professional horticulturists and are administered by the same automatic systems : ventilation, watering,
heating. They make for a surprising, changing and poetic image, in keeping with the artistic dimension of the university's teaching
activities. The exoticism of the plant varieties invites one to look beyond the mountains. Research into cost-effectiveness has been a
constant preoccupation during the conceiving of the project, in order to attain, within the same budget, the objectives of a larger
building, warranted by the ascertaining of needs and the frequentation of university buildings. With no restriction as to the quality
of the facilities, materials and products used, it has enabled us to create additional lecture rooms, a larger assembly hall, corridors
that become genuine meeting places, a much bigger library occupying the whole of one floor. The sobriety, efficacy and rigor of the
building are set alongside an unexpected event in the project, which creates its image and its poetry : the conservatory with their
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