Can Baró Library in Barcelona, Spain by Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Article source: Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

The place destined for the enlargement and the whole Can Baró environment, preserved the charm of those areas where diversity and disunity required a forceful, logical and considered response. The enlargement becomes an extension of the topography looking for a merger between the building and the public area, which is not seen as something that we find between the buildings, but is integrated into the architecture. The architectural area is something that we find hidden or camouflaged within the topography.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó 

• Architects: Sierra Rozas Arquitectes
• Project: Can Baró Library
• Location:  Carrer Sant Salvador, Corbera de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
• Photography: Jordi Bernadó
• Collaborators:
  Structural Engineering: Manuel Arguijo
  Mechanical & electrical engineering: LluisDuart
  Architecture collaborators: Mireia Estrada
  Project Management: Diputació de Barcelona (OTC y Servei de Biblioteques)
  Technical Architects: SGS TecnosS.A.(Lorena Fariñas i Roger Pinyana)
• Client: Ayuntamiento de Corbera de Llobregat
• Main Contractor: Construcciones Exisa
• Planes: Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

• Materials and Industrials:
  Furniture inside: Metalundia
  Interior Lighting: Lamp y Troll
  Interior coverings: HPL panel de Fundermax
  Aluminium: Technal (BenTancat)
  Roof and Facade: Quartz Zinc de VM Zinc(Cubimad) and traditional stucco
  Outdoor pavement: PalmaPaver semidry pressed cast stone of Escofet
  Exterior coatings: Digital Printing panel of Fundermax(Isovolta)
  Urban elements: Escofet and  Santa&Cole
  Exterior lighting: Escofet, iGuzzini and Santa&Cole
• Awards: First Prize competition 2005, Finalist Arquitectura Plus 2011 Adwards
• Budget: 2.600.248,77 €  (without tax)
• Area: 1.542,60 m2(building) +999,33 m2(urbanization)
• Project date: 2006
• Construction date: 2010

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

The building is reformed according to the environment with the following starting conditions: the existing building and an irregular large gap of complex geometry with a considerable topographic slope. The new building, in its apparent formal complexity, can be summed up as a bespoke piece of the place. Built and modeled with what cannot be touched, but can be perceived: light-shadow, empty-full, open-closed, warm -cold …

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

Casa Baró is an early twentieth century “masía” protected in the catalog of historical and artistic heritage of the municipality. The reform is done completely, preserving only the facade closure. The building envelope has been meticulously intervened exclusively at those points where it is necessary in order to return the building to its primal identity.The new roofing and the glass skylight situated therein are turned into a large photovoltaic sensor.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

In order to take advantage of the unevenness of the ground, the new enlargement comes out as an extension of the topography of the place. As a prolongation of the sidewalk, a part of the cover becomes an horizontally carpet becoming a public square. It is a sloping square that culminates in a viewpoint located in a privileged site with excellent views. From this point on, the building is not understood as a building but as the actual terrain that descends and is modelled to end up transformed into a space that houses the library programme.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

The roof begin to break up turning into the topography that descends in a search for dialogue and relation with the neighboring constructions. The going up and down mechanism of the roofing allows getting higher interior spaces and, simultaneously, filter and capture daylight to illuminate them.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

Inside, the double spaces will bring eventually light the spaces below. In the ground floor a glass enclousere has been choosen to provide transparency and to announce what takes place inside, like a showcase. Further up the spaces are open only in selectively and controlled points seeking out the best views.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

These spaces generate suitable places for reading, preserving both its own privacy and the one of the surrounding buildings. Inside everything is articulated into sequences and spaces that change constantly with simultaneity of diaphanous spaces, double spaces, diagonalized views, highly controlled views and multiple zenith light inputs. The interior furnishings project reinforces the architectural traces.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

The new and the existing part are related to each other with the utmost respect, by analogy and contrast.The use of common materials in reforms, both inside and outside, and the use of the formal and spatial language interrelate the two buildings. The intervention also involves the development of the whole environment of the library, with clear pedestrian connectivity improvements.

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó 

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

Image Courtesy © Jordi Bernadó

Image Courtesy Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Image Courtesy Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Image Courtesy Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Image Courtesy Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Image Courtesy Sierra Rozas Arquitectes

Tags: Barcelona, Spain

Category: Library

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