The Sagrada Família library is the result of the refurbishment of an existing unused building as part of a complex of facilities.
The reorganisation of the complex's accesses, a significant modification of the building's structure and a metamorphosis of its envelope have transformed it and given a new value to the Eixample corner. A closed construction has given way to a permeable library, open to light, views and the city.
The proposal was based on two main operations - ideas that remained until the building was completed. The first was to let light into the interior of the facility through a significant physical opening and by replacing its skin. The second was to change the existing system of scattered and non-hierarchical entrances for a formula that opens the building to the street, turning the main entrances into an extension of the public space. In this way, with the modification of the entrances and the way in which the new building volumetrically completes the widening block, the chamfer (which in the previous constellation functioned as a residual space) is here given a well-deserved prominence.
The new use of the building, inserted in the Pla Cerdà of the Eixample district, requires open spaces and natural light. A vertical void that appeared after the elimination of the central bay gives shape to the building, dividing it into two parallel bars, introducing a space of light in the centre of the library.
The veils of the façades exchange transparency between inside and outside throughout the day. The skin, as a series of filters that gives the building its variable appearance, distils the exterior light that fills the library space. The system of screens, filters, transparencies and visuals contributes to a rich and perceptively changing space.
