The library is located at the north-west end of Civic Square on the Northern Campus of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). Through its interior, cutting the building obliquely, runs an access street to Civic Square which transforms into the lobby of the building.
The interior is organised in several very neutral rooms that must allow for the constant reorganisation of the building as new technologies take centre stage in the library.
The North Campus forms an almost continuous façade against which the volume of the white limestone building is cut, with a huge opening that marks the beginning of the path. The façade contrasts in volume, composition, openings and colour with the rear façade. The rest of the building's façades are made of stone. In Civic Square, the façade is completely glazed and contrasts with the previous ones, which signifies it.
The roof illuminates the upper floors and takes the shape of a saw tooth oriented to strict north, with an oblique geometry with respect to the rest of the building's geometries. The upper room, carpeted, always quiet, is very pleasant to visit. The vertical connectivity that the lobby gives to the entire building is also spectacular, a singular lobby for a building called to be one of the relationship centres of the entire Northern Campus.
The building incorporates the different libraries of the UPC university schools.
The special location of the building right on the border between the city and the university campus, is one of the aspects in which the project has been most sensitive. Its image as a door, on the one hand, and as an urban piece capable of provoking activity and relationship, on the other, have been basic premises when developing the project.
A newly created street will become – as it passes through the interior of the building – a hall generating meeting and circulation, and will be the element that determines the segregation between service areas and served areas.
The main body of serviced areas is intended for the library area. On the first and second floors, the layout of the spaces is similar to the ground floor. They are diaphanous and clear plants when in space. On the top floor the surface regains the entire contour of its building volume. It is a plant closed in itself, with slanted openings to provide tangential lighting and linear skylights oriented directly to the North.
The various materials have been chosen to achieve a good aging of the building. On the façades there is limestone, placed in an airy way, which will cause a composition of joints in accordance with the scale of the building. Inside, the public parts have stone floors and the rest of the flooring in study and consultation areas will be carpeted in order to maintain a degree of acoustic comfort in accordance with the nature of the building.