Library Buildings around the World

DETAIL 2005/3
AIT Architectur 2004/5
The Architectural Review 2004/1283
Architectura Viva 2003/92
El Proyecto para la nueva Biblioteca Pública de Villanueva de la Cañada responde a la necesidad de complementar los servicios que
se están desarrollando en el Centro Cultural vecino, edificio del arquitecto Juan Navarro Baldeweg. La Biblioteca se ha entendido
como nudo de comunicación, investigación, encuentro y conocimiento. Este tipo de edificios son cada vez menos autónomas, y
dependen de estímulos y conexiones externas que les dotan y relacionan con el mundo y el conocimiento. Las comunicaciones por
Internet, la consultas de bases de datos, las nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación obligan a las bibliotecas a adaptarse
arquitectónicamente a estos usos, contando con ellos y encontrando una expresión arquitectónica que los defina. Desde el punto de
vista arquitectónico, todo este nudo de encuentros, con usos y exigencias muy diversas, se ha resuelto espacialmente enlazando sus
usos con una “espiral” ascendente de libros a través de un sistema de rampas, que al enroscarse, va distribuyendo y atendiendo a su
paso los espacios que se distribuyen a su alrededor. A medida que asciende, los usos asociados a los distintos niveles, se corresponden
con tareas más específicas, más complejas, más dependientes de la comunicación exterior, por lo que el camino desde la Biblioteca de
Niños, hasta las salas de estudio e Internet, encuentran una expresión arquitectónica representativa del aprendizaje y el
conocimiento, objetivo último de una Biblioteca Pública. Los espacios y usos diferenciados se han pensado y resuelto
constructivamente de modo austero y uniforme, buscando definir estancias confortables y acogedoras sin más intervención que la de
materiales naturales y la introducción de luz natural valorada de forma distinta en cada espacio. La estructura será de cerámica
armada, dejando sus muros vistos al interior y encalándolos de blanco, mientras los suelos serán de tarima industrial de roble en
todo el edificio, persiguiendo espacios continuos, sin interferencias visuales en sus acabados, pero definiendo muy claramente los
ámbitos con la organización de sus paredes y los huecos al exterior. (http://www.en.urbarama.com)
Lluis Clotet i. Ass., Barcelona – Spain
Libraries:
Biblioteca Universita Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona – Spain 1999
The University Library of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra , designed by the architects Lluís Clotet and Ignacio Paricio 1999, has been
awarded the Years 2009, awarded each year Foundation Oscar Tusquets Blanca a work built 10 years earlier. The Library is located
in the old deposit of Water Park of the Citadel, built by architect Joseph Fontserè and Master 1874. According to the records of the
jury, made only by the Italian architect Alessandro Mendini, this award is due, according to him at: “"The value of the
transformation of an engineering building on a" magical place designed to library, or rather, a reading room. " The language of the
intervention on the old water tank, 1874 is perfectly highlighted, "and leads to an atmosphere distant, abstract and concentration,
can be isolated from the outside this small city of books" ( ...) (http://www.bauenblog.info)
Think tank: in Barcelona, an extraordinary industrial relic from the nineteenth century has been imaginatively and sensitively
transformed into a new university library. (Interior Design).
Dating from 1990, Barcelona's University Pompeu Fabra is a relative newcomer to the city's educational pantheon, yet today it is
considered one of the most prestigious universities in Spain. With a student population of around seven thousand, it offers a range of
graduate courses, along with doctoral, postgraduate and masters degrees. Emphasizing the role of a university as part of society,
Pompeu Fabra has a distinctly urban character unlike most new campuses which tend to be exiled to the periphery. Installed in a
series of remodelled buildings of diverse historical origin, the various faculties are clustered around la Ciutadella, near the city zoo
and Olympic Village on the eastern edge of the Cerda grid. Projects such as MBM's imaginative remodelling of the Roger de Lluria
barracks (AR November 2001) into lecture halls and seminar rooms are typical of the ongoing development programme which seeks
to invigorate and sustain the public realm, through a process of historical consolidation and repair.
This latest project by the young Barcelona-based partnership of Lluis Clotet and lgnacio Paricio Ansuategui involves the
refurbishment and conversion of the Diposit de les Aigues into a new university library. Acquired by Pompeu Fabrain the mid 1980s,
the building was originally a water reservoir, designed by Josep Fontser's and Josep Comet in 1874 as part of a lake and cascade
complex sited at Parc de la Ciutadella. An outstanding example of nineteenth-century industrial architecture, the building's robust
brick construction echoes the massive Roman engineering of the Mirabilis Pool in Naples, an enormous reservoir of drinking water
built for the Roman fleet during the reign of Augustus.
Since it ceased to operate as a reservoir, the Diposit has undergone many different incarnations--a World's Fair pavilion, archive,
fire station, film set and old people's home. This most recent use involved the construction of internal partition walls, which Clotet
and Paricio have removed as part of their intention to preserve the original structure and enhance the dramatic quality of the
internal spaces. The urge to impinge as little as possible on the historic fabric strongly underscores the entire project.
The building's new function responds both to the drama and practical constraints of the existing structural geometry. The rooftop
water tank is supported by a dense grid of Im thick parallel brick walls penetrated by arches to create a series of 4m wide vaults.
Around the perimeter, massive brick buttresses provide lateral restraint. The resulting interior is a cavernous, cathedral-like volume
made up of a rhythmic labyrinth of vaults. This heroically scaled space has been sensitively transformed into a reading room and
library, the rows of desks and book stacks slotted with precise economy into the regimented structural grid. Subsequent
interventions have been stripped out--for instance, the existing upper floor has been cut back to form a reading balcony around the
perimeter, giving views out over the scholars toiling below. A modular precast concrete structure, independent from the brickwork,
permitted the installation of a raised floor. All the necessary building services (wiring, plumbing, furniture) were installed without
disturbing the original structure.
Despite the monumental character of the space, the architects have managed to create many different sorts of work and study areas,
ranging from intimate, individual enclaves, to communal spaces dwarfed by the towering structure and vast vaulted vistas. The most
ingenious new interventions are the skylights on the roofs tank. Each consists of an inverted mirror-glass pyramid set in a clear glass
casing which funnels sunlight reflected off the water into the deep plan of the reading room below. Other interventions are more
prosaic, bringing the nineteenth-century structure in line with current planning and seismological legislation. Overall, the architects
have accomplished the often difficult task of injecting new life into a distinguished historic building with a mixture of rigour and
sensuality. Pompeu Fabra has another happily revitalized relic. (http://www.thefreelibrary.com)
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