Public Library in Sarrià, Barcelona
Competition for BIMSA

We are proposing the creation of a new key space in the district of Sarrià. The layout of a hybrid building of this nature should be able to provide a new common identity to all public facilities, exceeding the image of a single-purpose building thus providing a new image for a public building intended for the residents and the community.

The dimensions, determined by the façade and the roofs, respond to the various scales of the building. Different pitched roofs ensure that the highest sections open up to Passeig Bonanova, while the building sets back towards Menor street, thus reducing, by nearly one floor, the impact on the opposite buildings, located just a few meters away. The façade gives meaning to the flexible use of the complex and the non-frontal nature of the building, creating a system able to respond to the extremely diverse constraints of each surrounding to which the building opens up.

The relationship with the immediate space begins on the ground floor, where the public area enters into the internal space, via a very permeable zone, with a smaller scale cul-de-sac and no apparent sequence, giving access to the four programmes of the building. The façade’s materials meet the urban requirements, based on the traditional architecture of the adjacent surroundings, using glazed ceramic materials and different hues of ochre and russet, in accordance with the neighbouring facades.

Through irregularity as a continuous façade system and the framework of vertical slats with random openings at each side, we aim to integrate the future structure of Passeig Bonanova 117, according to the specific brief, adapting the façade to smaller scales and reinforcing the multipurpose nature of the building.

Architects
Camila Aybar, Juan José Mateos, Jorge Jover and Maria Borrell

Developer
BIMSA

Project 2013
Area 4.640m²