Miguel Ángel Díaz Camacho    Spain   The new public library in the Butarque neighborhood of Madrid’s Villaverde district satisfies an old demand of the community, being the first library to be built by the Madrid City Council in this area. The design revolves around the idea of creating

Al Borde   Ecuador   Yuyarina Pacha means ‘space-time to think’ in Kichwa, one of Ecuador’s official native languages. This library is located in the community of Huaticocha, in the buffer zone of the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve, in the Ecuardorian Amazon. In 2019, the Sara

Herzog & de Meuron   Israel   The design for the National Library of Israel juxtaposes the desire to react to the architectural traditions of the place with the ambition to make a building that is appropriate for our contemporary time – a library that is welcoming, accessible to

Gabriel Gallegos Borges   Spain   The architect Gabriel Gallegos Borges (Valladolid, 1956) was commissioned to adapt Villa Fabriciano, completed by Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza in 1994, into a cultural facility for Torrelodones, a municipality of the Madrid metropolitan area. The b

Fernanda Canales   Mexico   The rough vicinity of a frontier checkpoint has been transformed, for the first time offering crossers a safe waiting place shielded from the harsh sun and equipped with lavatories. In unprecedented proximity to the security line, the modest facility

OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen   Belgium   The new municipal library of Sint-Martens-Latem, in the Belgian province of East Flanders, presents a saddle-shaped roof delimited by a circular perimeter that makes it cut a distinctive figure in the village center. The Brussels firm OFFICE Kersten

Snøhetta   China   The new center is a quiet oasis of culture in the district where the Chinese capital’s local administration has been concentrating, a ‘sub-center’ that seeks to slow down the crowding of the heart of the metropolis. Protected by a flat roof with larg

Estudio DIIR   Spain   DIIR, the Madrid practice of David Meana, Ignacio Navarro, Iñigo Palazón, and Ricardo Fernández, has transformed an old building with dormitories for teachers into the library of Los Molinos, a municipality of the Madrid metropolitan area, specifical

WORKac   United States   In the Dumbo neighborhood of the borough of Brooklyn, New York, right by the Manhattan Bridge, a 1901 industrial building has been turned into a library by the firm WORKac, led by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood. In a dialogue between old and new, the ori

Dorte Mandrup   Sweden   The facade is formed by small windows interrupted by larger openings that frame the most important sites of Karlskrona. The mosaic facade relates to the multiple architectural styles in the city and showcases the evolution of its naval past…

Matos Castillo Néstor Montenegro Toni Gelabert   Spain   The project to refurbish and convert the Casa de la Cultura de Boadilla del Monte into a new library and municipal theater involved working on a building completed in the 1980s and which housed two uses, but combined in a slightly confused way. The

Grafton Architects   Ireland   The Library is the most democratic institution in our society today, a free space where knowledge and resources are exchanged unconditionally, a space open to all nationalities and social classes. This welcoming and public character marked the starti

Carmody Groarke   United Kingdom   A masterplan seeks to give the second campus of the British Library a significant overhaul, enhancing its storage capacity as well as improving its overall environmental performance. The revamped brutalist building will include new public zones with

SUMA Arquitectura   Spain   The project is located in a dense urban node, and it is precisely the need to adapt to this context that leads to the decision to replicate the chamfer typical of Barcelona’s urban planning. The library appears as a sculptural volume set on a square

COBE Architects   Sweden   The library is located in the heart of Näckrosen Park, a green space halfway between the city center and the campus.The whole aesthetic of the building, from its composition to the materials and facade colors, brings to mind an open book...

Aurelien Chen   China   In Jinxing, in China’s Hebei Province, the French architect Aurelien Chen led the CSCEC’s design team tasked with turning a canteen of coal mine workers into a multipurpose cultural facility. The project adapted the construction to accommodate new us

Tabanlioglu Architects   Turkey   The Atatürk Cultural Center first opened in Istanbul in 1969 as the Palace of Culture, following a project drawn up by Hayati Tabanlıoğlu (1927-1994). Located on the edge of Taksim Square, the building partly burned down two years after its inaugura

MVRDV   China   The Rotterdam firm MVRDV has won the competition to build the new central library of Wuhan. With its 140,000 square meters, it seeks to be one of China’s largest libraries. The building opens to reveal activities going on between stepped tiers of boo

OOOA Arquitectos   Spain   Part of the plan to modernize the Bay of Gibraltar Campus of the University of Cádiz (UCA) is this library with an abstract skin of perforated aluminum that dissipates solar overheating. Rather than functioning as a university service exclusively, it

E2A   Switzerland   Europaallee is by far the largest real estate development in the heart of Zurich and lies just beyond the main train station. The site is the final of eight new constructions and is directly adjacent to the multicultural – and rather infamous – distr

E2A   Switzerland   The Obstgarten school complex is a typical ensemble from the 1970s, and consists of raw concrete cubes that are integrated into their surroundings on different levels. While the brief included a renovation of the classroom tracts – their interiors re

Níall McLaughlin Architects   United Kingdom   A work of the London practice of Niall McLaughlin, the new library in the historical setting of Cambridge University has for 2022 won the Stirling Prize, awarded by Royal Institute od British Architects (RIBA). The ensemble of simple brick volumes re

Paredes Pedrosa Arquitectos   Spain   The library is conceived as a gate of access to the Jardines de la Agricultura (Agriculture Gardens), which it joins and becomes part of. In order to adapt to the historic layout of the 18th century gardens and to respect the existing trees, the buil

Four winners of the MATCOAM Awards were announced in the course of a gala event that closed the second Construction Week organized by the Madrid Institute of Architects (COAM), from its building department, MATCOAM. The prize in the Refurbishment cat

Among all architectural groups, the family of libraries is one of those that have most undergone transformation, thanks to the double – and almost always complementary – action of globalization and digital change. At least from the Enlightenment on,

A Jean Nouvel work which opened in 1996 on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin, what was the first branch abroad of the iconic Galeries Lafayette of Paris could now become a large library. In spite of huge investments, Friedrichstrasse has not managed to cons

Libraries are perhaps the most famous buildings in the West. They have probably also been the most useful. Certainly no one will question their worth as symbols of an entire culture, if not an entire civilization. For our civilization – or at least f

The Guardian   Rosie Goldsmith   The Future Library, a project dreamed up by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson, was opened to the public in Oslo. After eight years, manuscripts penned by some of the world’s most famous living authors were delivered to “The silent room” on the top f

‘This will kill that.’ In Victor Hugo’s prophecy – which was also McLuhan’s – ‘this’ referred to books and ‘that’ to cathedrals. It was a process of creative destruction that lasted as long as it took digitalization to arrive, and with it a new proph

A barn in the German municipality of Kressbronn, near Lake Constance, has been turned by Thomas and Christine Steimle into a library and community center. In deference to the building’s history, the project balances past and present. The renovation i

The New York Times   Michael Kimmelman   The Hunters Point Community Library is one of the finest public buildings New York has produced this century. But it cost more than $40 million, took a decade and almost died.  Against a phalanx of mostly dreary new apartment towers, the soon-to-open

Massimo Listri (Florence, 1953) began his career as a photographer when he was just 17 years old, collaborating with numerous publications dedicated to art and architecture, his two other great passions. He founded the mythical magazine FMR with Fran

Libraries have been one of the symbols of bourgeois society. Originally confined to monasterios and palaces, distant havens of elitist knowledge, libraries eventually became quintessential public spaces in the capitalist and increasingly democratic c

According to the hyperurban Koolhaas, the future of humanity is in the countryside. Not so with the present. Which is why he continues to work in places that can hardly be called rural: the poleis of Europe, the megacities of China, or the kingdoms o

In the port city of Tianjin (population 15.47 million), the Dutch firm MVRDV recently completed an immense library with a huge inner eye that can be glimpsed from the street and which, being so spectacularly disturbing, reminds one of the eye of Suar

A cornerstone laying ceremony was recently held at the site of the new National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, designed by the Swiss partnership Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with the Tel Aviv firm Mann Shinar. The building stands on a slo

The firm Herzog & de Meuron was selected to build Israel’s new National Library in Jerusalem, wrapping up a process that began with the selection of the proposal submitted by USbased Israeli Rafi Segal, which authorship issues eventually prevented fr

El proyecto del israelí Rafi Segal es el ganador del concurso para la nueva sede de la Biblioteca Nacional de Israel en Jerusalén, que ha sido organizado por dicha institución y la Fundación Rothschild, desarrollándose en varias fases y contando con

Bajo una gran pirámide acristalada, una montaña de libros invita a la lectura en una estructura de terrazas apiladas: así es el nuevo edificio de MVRDV para la biblioteca pública de la ciudad de Spijkenisse, a unos 20 kilómetros de Rotterdam. Con una

Gorka Blas ha ganado el concurso internacional para la construcción de una biblioteca pública en la ciudad surcoreana de Daego. Su propuesta —que resultó la vencedora entre las 548 presentadas por equipos de 61 países— se inspira en el carácter del

Diébédo Francis Kéré está construyendo una biblioteca pública en la aldea burkinesa de Gando, en la que el arquitecto afincado en Berlín nació hace 47 años: un nuevo edificio que se añade a los dos —aulario y residencia de profesores— que componen la

La recientemente inaugurada Biblioteca Municipal María Lejárraga, situada en la localidad de Ogíjares y diseñada por el estudio granadino M57 —liderado por el tinerfeño Rubens Cortés—, se levanta sobre una antiguo secadero de tabaco declarado Bien de

Richard Ingersoll   La creciente digitalización de los libros supone un reto para las bibliotecas que, lejos de desaparecer, mantienen su carácter simbólico y adoptan formas evanescentes e inéditas.

Annick Cojean   Considerado el mejor especialista en la historia del libro, Darnton apuesta por las nuevas tecnologías para llevar hoy a término el ideal ilustrado del saber abierto y universal.

María Luisa López-Vidriero   Existe un mundo que los nuevos soportes digitales no podrán reemplazar: el vinculado a las huellas materiales, las sensaciones táctiles y los hábitos asociados a los libros.

Werner Oechslin   ¿Cuál es el origen de la arquitectura? ¿Sigue siendo verosímil la narración de Vitruvio sobre aquella época primitiva en la que los hombres vivían aún como los animales (ut ferae), merodeando por bosques y cuevas? La leyenda vitruviana sobre el orige

Stuart A. P. Murray   Madrid  2014  
La Esfera de los Libros   - 394 Pages