Bibliotèca Gabriel García Márquez: SUMA Arquitectura (Elena Orte Largo, Guillermo Ignacio Sevillano Bengoechea), 2022
Bibliotèca Gabriel García Marquez is a neighbourhood branch of the Barcelona’s municipal library system. Situated on a chamfered corner of a typical city block, it is a very sculptural object-building characterised by immense glazed openings and an entire part of the building dramatically cantilevered over its entrance area. The library’s spaces step upward around a central skylit atrium in which mass-timber structural elements and connections are exposed throughout, creating a daylight-filled interior highly conducive to reading. Interior spaces are varied in size and proportion, making for an eventful promenade while offering users plenty of choice in terms of places to work or hang out: there is a low-ceilinged area with children’s books, another area where small groups of teenagers do homework together, a media classroom where elderly people learn information technology, a lounge for reading periodicals plus many book stacks. There is something for every age group and social class in this bright and inviting public building. The architecture of the library, while delightful, contains little that is new. Despite its exciting and photogenic contemporary design, the Bibliotèca García Márquez is in essence a building in which a mass-timber structure happens to have been employed instead of steel or concrete. In fact, had traditional reinforced concrete been used, many of the large panes of glass might not have cracked, to say nothing of the cracks in the timber structure itself, which unfortunately has required steel pillars to be installed to support the sagging cantilever. Mass-timber is more flexible than reinforced concrete, so it is perhaps not the ideal material for a building with large glass openings and a mighty cantilever full of heavy books. Bibliotèca Gabriel García Márquez reveals, then, a fundamental mismatch between its beautiful architectural form and its sustainable structural material.
courtesy of SUMA Arquitectura
Floor plan of level +1, the children’s area The central atrium fills the library with natural light. The library is full of diverse spaces, one of which is furnished with hammocks.
29
on site review 48 :: building materials
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator