Alexis de Tocqueville Library, Caen
OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture Barcode Architects- Typologies Library Culture / Leisure
- Material Glass Corrugated glass
- Date 2010 - 2016
- City Caen
- Country France
- Photographer Delfino Sisto Legnani Iwan Baan Marco Cappelletti
Located on one of the docks over the River Orne as it flows through Caen, the Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale (BMVR) sits at the tip of a peninsula historically devoted to the port activities and that is now undergoing a redevelopment process to include residential uses and services. The project aims to connect the center of the city with the new urban tissue, designating two axes that link historic and cultural landmarks in the city – the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and the Abbaye-aux-Dames – with the new constructions and with the central station, respectively. These intersecting axes turn the site into a symbolic center where culture and technology converge, stressing the building’s vocation: becoming a multimedia library on a regional level. In this way, the library consists of two elongated volumes placed along the axis with two large reading rooms and which meet in the large central atrium, encouraging a maximum interface across different disciplines in the cultural program. The shape of the two volumes maximizes available natural light, and optimizes the bay width in structural terms, favoring interaction with its public environment and ensuring flexibility inside the building...
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Cliente Client
Communauté d’agglomération Caen La Mer
Arquitecto Architect
OMA / Rem Koolhaas, Chris van Duijn (socio encargado partner in charge)
Concurso Competition
Dirk Peters / Barcode Architects (project manager); Clément Blanchet (asociado responsable associate in charge); Cristina Ampatzidou, Joshua Boyd, Nils Christa, Marc Dahmen, Guillaume Durand, Alice Grégoire, Simon de Jong, Anthony Joyeux, Noémie Laviolle, Clément Périssé, Jos Reinders (equipo team)
APS & APD
Dirk Peters / Barcode Architects, Francisco Martinez / APS & APD (project managers); Clément Blanchet (asociado responsable associate in charge); Marek Chytil, Paul Cournet, Lionel Debs, Javier Guijarro, Didzis Jaunzems, Sangwoo Kim, Pierre Jean Le Maitre, Filippo Nanni, Clement Perisse, Maria Aller Rey, Mariano Sagasta, Giulia Scotto (equipo team)
PRO & DCE
Clément Blanchet (asociado responsable associate in charge); Francisco Martinez (jefe de proyecto project leader); Merve Anil, Alicia Casals, Helena Hiriart, Phil Handley, Sangwoo Kim, Byungchan Kim, Pierre Jean Le Maitre, Maria Aller Rey, Mariano Sagasta, Giulia Scotto, Sara Sun (equipo team)
Construcción Construction
Francois Riollot (contract manager); Francisco Martinez (jefe de proyecto project leader); Maria Aller Rey, Julien Miguel, Phelan Heinsohn, Jerome Picard, Jeanne Le Lièvre (equipo team)
Colaboradores Collaborators
Barcode Architects, Clement Blanchet Architecture (arquitectura architecture); Iosis / Egis Batiments (ingeniería engineering); Elioth (sostenibilidad y fachada sustainability and facade); RHDHV (acústica acoustics); Ducks sceno (escenografía scenography); ArtefactoryLab (infografías renders); Robert-Jan van Santen / VS-a group (fachada facade); Inside Outside (cortinas curtains)
Fotos Photos
Marco Cappelletti; Antoine Cardi; Delfino Sisto Legnani; Iwan Baan; Luc Boegly + Sergio Grazia
