The existential question of the modern library is addressed with this project by SUMA Architects, an important public building commissioned by Barcelona City Council and inaugurated during 2022. In an age of 24/7 connectivity through internet access and mobile phones the library typology requires questioning and reinvention. Barcelona can boast a highly appreciated network of public libraries, that perhaps reflects its long history of publishing and literary culture. The Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez is the city’s third largest and will accommodate 40,000 books in total within a built area of almost 4,300 sq.m.
Named after the famous Colombian writer who lived in Barcelona between the lates 60s and early 70s, the building is however much more than simply a book repository. More like a social and community centre. Designed as a microcosm of the city itself, organised vertically with a range of programmes that reflect the diversity of urban living. The building section is the key to its organisation, entrance is raised off the ground plane on a timber deck, on the chaflán, under a cantilevered volume. Internally a light filled triangular atrium accommodates the main stairs that leads to the various reading rooms and other areas. A multi-purpose auditorium and radio station occupy the basement level which opens onto a planted area. Children’s library, multi-media, reading and meeting rooms are arranged concentrically around the atrium ascending to the top level with its panoramic window looking back over the street.
Sandwiched between Rambla de Guipúzcoa and Gran Via the Sant Marti neighbourhood has a unique urban texture, with much more visible sky between its blocks. The library capitalises on this condition with open facades on all four sides. Treated more like a free-standing building rather than an infill the library is surrounded by light. The timber frame structure with steel reinforcement lends the interior an unusual cellular quality that is tempered by larger communal spaces, all however calibrated by the trabeated, column and beam structure. No area of the building is not organised or conditioned in some way or other by the structure. Materially the timber creates a homely ambience, underlined by the diversity of the furniture, signage and lighting solutions featured throughout.
The library’s external treatment makes references to printed matter as physical object, with folded metal panels laid in horizontal and vertical alignments that recall folded pages of a book. These double as brise soleil on the south and west facing facades. The white metal folds evoke an extra-large origami sculpture, almost like the entire building was made from folded card, a sense that is heightened with the words and sentences serigraphed over these same plates that are provided for passers-by.
Recent Comments