Library Buildings around the World

Giorgio Grassi, Milano – Italy
Libraries:
Biblioteca Universidad de Valencia – Valencia – Spain 1998
Openbare Bibliotheek, Groningen – The Netherlands 1990 – 1992
Assisting Architect: Car Kalfsbeek
Literature:
de Architect 1992-6
Archis 1992-10
Domus 1990-3, 1993-3
l'Arca 1990-7/8
Baumeister 1993-1
Bauwelt 1993 p. 92
Lotus 74
P. Insansti, T. Llopis - Giorgio Grassi Obras y proyectos 1962-1993, 1994
Cohn, David: Sieben Geschosse Bücherwand. Universitätsbibliothek von Valencia, in: Bauwelt,90,1999,31,SS 1694-1701
Il Laterzio, 80,Marzo,Aprile 2001, pp. 18-23
The library by the Italian Rationalist Grassi is a subdued affair whose brickwork and vertical window shapes stand it in
good stead with the surrounding buildings which include a quartet of monumental houses. The library consists of two
elongated portions - a public library and an office section - around an interior court. An entrance pavilion and a narrow
terminating block for horizontal and vertical circulation link the two parts. (http://www.architectureguide.nl)
Iotti + Pavarani Architetti, Reggio Emilia – Italy
http://www.iotti-pavarani.com
Libraries:
Centro Civico (Biblioteca), Traversetolo (PR) – Italy 2004 – 2006
2.100 m², € 2.500.000
Biblioteca Publica Albano Sant´Alessandro (BG) – Italy 2005
500 m², € 700.000
Biblioteca Publica Centro Culturale, Cavriago (RE) – Italy competition 2004
Ipostudio, Firenze (FI) – Italia
http://www.ipostudio.it
Libraries:
Biblioteca della Facoltà di Architettura, Firenze – Italy 2006
with: Maria Grazia Eccheli, Verona (VR) - Italy
The building complex which goes by the name of the Walled, is merely the result of various and successive modifications and
structural typology of an ancient convent of cloistered nuns - hence probably the name of Walled - then and now through a radical
transformation Addition of bodies, the male prison in Florence, from the end 800 until the '70s. A few years ago going through a
considerable administrative effort and planning by the municipality of Florence the creation of a recovery plan which has already
led to the conversion of part of the complex for residential use. The plan was expected to allocate part of the building complex at the
University of Florence for your needs. E 'in this context that fits the design of the new library of the Faculty of Architecture. This
localization in addition to seize an opportunity, is linked, more significantly, the fact that in the structural plan of the University of
Florence across the Faculty of Architecture was deployed in the area east of Florence - Santa Croce district - through in fact, the
recovery of other disused prisons: Santa Verdiana and Santa Teresa. The walled part of the overall assigned to the project, involves
building and courtyard Y air time, is currently used for parking, which borders the alley Young Italy. All locked up by the high
prison walls. This building was built not on the abutments of the convent, but rather in its gardens, is the type most original part of
the complex because it is linked, by the book, the archetype of the Panopticon. The building program, a collaboration between the
faculty, the designers and managers of university libraries, plans to create a structure that can play multiple roles: conservation,
reading, communication, display, etc ... The project strategy was defined in relation to three basic choices which constitute the inner
structure of this library: three choices that all point to the seamless integration of existing and new. The first was to re-use the
"arms" of the prison as bookshelves, storage in elevation, open for consultation related to students' reading rooms and through small
bridges that take advantage of the openings in the sides of the arms themselves. The cells for nearly a century were places of
detention, is now transformed into a space of freedom. This act of appreciation has a practical aspect is not secondary because doing
so fails to act on the existing light with a restructuring, respectful of the existing technological and typological structure. The second
choice is focused on the desire to throw in the high walls of the prison - about 12 m - as part of the library. Starting from the
consideration that represent more than a 'chance that a no or just a constraint of the project. Few, but large openings - including the
entrance to the Library by Avenues - not a glimpse of the second skin detachment, consisting of metal and glass facade of the new
building. This dialogue between existing masonry structure and new metal and glass, in fact, a new role assigned to the prison walls,
noise protection of the avenues and support systems for the attenuation of sunlight. From inside the reading room there is a moment
where you can recapture the feeling of being within the urban life, the more chaotic, a bay window extends beyond the one great
window to the streets. The third choice concerns, employment for obstruction, which volumetric and planimetric, the yard air time -
in fact, the obstruction height is confined within the walls, all detached from the existing structures of varying degrees between 3 and
2 meters. This is to make more clear the distinction, from the inside of the reading rooms of what is existing and what is new. Again,
the linguistic strategy is probably the daughter of the will and the necessity of distinguishing between the building structures for
static and technological reasons. The occupation of the courtyard of air time once again involves an inevitable metaphor for this is
the place of mobility, and the rest of the meetings. Three elements and drill vertically through the central volume, three elements
that serve as emblematic places of the library: the central square court is formed as a reading room open to the city, the cylinder of
the vertical links as a place of physical communication between the parties to ' building, and the cylinder of the conference room and
the ramp dell'emeroteca, as a place of cultural communication. These three elements become boring holes in the roof skylights with
their volumes and draw a hanging garden of stone. The recovery plan of the Municipality of Florence to establish a link from the
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