Library Buildings around the World

visitors to wander outside. The terrace on the west is bordered by a slightly raised water channel that drops into a circular
pool. Beyond this channel stands a grove of palm trees. A sense of freedom was evoked by varying the size and shape of
library floors to give each a unique character. Visitors are thus encouraged to discover the building in all of its variety,
natural intrigue, and wonder. Graduated chils-size stacks are among the unique features of the children’s library. Scaled-
down furnishins and abundant natural light place young people at ease in an environment tailored to their needs.
(Legorreta)
Museotec, Mexico City/Miami – Mexico
http://www.museotec.net
Libraries:
Jalisco State Library Public Library, Guadalajara – Mexico 2005 in process
The new Public Library of the State of Jalisco is a gate, literal and symbolic, which communicates the community of the city of
Guadalajara which the cultural whole of the University of Guadalajara. The controlled and shaded light is the “leit motif” in the
interior of the new library. Each façade has a different treatment, by means of a covering with cooper plates, closed, perforated or as
mullions, which work as an acoustic and thermic diaphragma. (Museotec)
REC Arquitectura y Construccion, México City - Mexico
http://www.recarquitectura.com
Libraries:
Biblioteca Central UAEM (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos), Cuernavaca – Mexico 2011
under construction
The building complex is conceived in sub elements, each element rationally positioned and connected to one another with three
generating ideas: culture, cultivation and domesticity.
Wagons:
Volumes dedicated to book collection and reading rooms with clean circulations, but above all with close proximity between books
and reading tables, echoing the way it occurs at home and its domesticity in having things within close reach. The building structure
is flexible for additions, modifications or reproductions within the same site or serving as models for different places inside or outside
the university campus.
"L" Building:
This volume serves as boundary for the central space and contains administrative, public and service spaces such as: multi-purpose
rooms, videotheque, hemerotheque, auditorium for 143 people, theses, computer and meeting rooms, cubicles, chief of services,
private collections, restrooms, book storage, machinery room, clean water cistern and rainwater cistern.
Lobby/Vestibule:
The double high space performs different functions and the resulting form is entirely rational. The main access features a 5.6m glass
curtain with a concave silhouette designed to protect the space from isolation, likewise, columns and different structural elements are
projected towards the exterior in order to work as brise - soleil. Inside, the building's main facade works as a canvas to deploy a
timeline in which historical facts are xerographied within the architecture; divided vertically in modules of 1.2 meters width to show
chronologically key moments in history from 1500 B.C. to 2000 A.D.; and horizontally in learning areas, looking for a recreational
strategy to interrelate important events in history in a holistic context.
Central Patio/Central Courtyard:
The central patio with a raindrop shape offers, aside from natural light and ventilation, a triple function of the building with its
context; first, it seems like an interior street that ends with a natural mound in the exterior, second, if observed from the wagons, the
building is perceived as if the viewer were on the outside, and finally, when the visitor is located at the last wagon towards the main
access, the central patio seems confined with a local tree species called "gold rain", this is the way in which the same volume allows
the viewer, depending on his position, to experience a street, a building from the outside and a central courtyard.
Agriculture:
This action embraces self resources, society and education; instead of proposing landscape design and gardening which would
eventually need future budget for maintenance, the library landscape strategy is focused on partnering with the faculty of
agriculture to surround the building context with orchards and vegetable gardens, interrelating the library socially with another
university faculty and allowing the faculty of agriculture to gather and concentrate its land needs while creating synergy within more
areas of knowledge.
Light:
The lighting strategy was based on the idea of light bouncing in one or two surfaces at least, this effect would generate a different
light intensity in the interior; for example, in the wagons, the three skylights would received different illumination since the way they
are place embrace light from the dawn to light from the dusk. The skylight of one of the wagons was oriented towards the north in
order to have homogeneous natural light, in the double high stairs and multipurpose rooms, the roof walls were conically shaped in
order to look for zenital light; finally, there was left a gap between the double high space ceiling and the elongated bar in order to
take advantage of the 12pm light bouncing against a orange surface to provide warmth light at noon. (http://www.e-architect.co.uk)
TAX Alberto Kalach, Taller de Arquitectura X, Mexico-City - Mexiko
http://www.kalach.com
Libraries:
Biblioteca Pública José Vasconcelos de México, México City – México 2005 – 2007
Competition : 2004 | Alberto Kalach , Juan Palomar , Gustavo Lipkau , Tonatiuh Martinez, Development: Taller de Arquitectura X
- 2005 -2007 | Construction : 2005 -2007
Megalibraries for a nation of readers
Since it opened nearly three years ago, the megalibraries, Fox government's cultural project, it has only been open to the public for
11 months Designed by architect Alberto Kalach, the megalibraries can accommodate up to two million books and protects the
skeleton of a whale, a piece made by Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco on purpose for the site (Photo: Jorge Luis Gallegos / El
Universal)
Carlos Rojas Urrutia, El Universal, Mexico City Wednesday February 4, 2009, 00:05
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