LIBRARY COMPETITION, ROSARIO
The size of the plot, the wideness of the landscape and the low density urban context, suggest a horizontal architecture extended over the whole width of the plot; on the other hand there is the demand for an emblematic and distinctive building for the City of Rosario. Therefore we propose a building with an expressive and surprising silhouette: a library that presents a modular, almost classic and transparent façade towards the south and which opens up through playful volumes, patios and terraces towards the north.
The extended main volume is conceived as a huge bookshelf open towards the city: an efficient and rational box that allows flexibility of program and adaptation to new technologies in the future. A library that combines constructive simplicity with new technologies and low energy consumption. This clarity and transparency is expressed towards the south side of the building where a large glazed façade opens up the building to the new park that will be developed on the former military base. While the libraries of yesteryear where closed buildings in which the treasures of knowledge were protected behind stone walls, here the library of the XXIst Century opens up and extends towards society. On the north side, as a hinge between the existing Centro Municipal Distrito Sur by Siza and the new library complex, a park is created in which the paved areas, the green spaces and the sculptural volumes of the architectural ensemble compose an urban space plenty of activity and quality.
(Note that on the southern hemisphere the sunny side is the north side, and the shaded side the south side)
Collaborators: Rocío Carvajo, Antonio Espinoza, Diego Escamilla / Location: Rosario, Argentina / Type: Public Library / Organisation: Municipalidad de Rosario & Colegio de Arquitectos D2 - Rosario/ Date: July 2010 / Open International competition (Latin America)