Joan Maragall Library, 2014

Barcelona, Spain

Architects: BCQ arquitectura barcelona

The Joan Maragall Library is located in and under the the grounds of the Villa Florida, a surviving masía (the typical farmhouses of prosperous Catalan landholders) in the Barcelona quarter of Sant Gervasi. It is named after the Catalan modernist poet and writer Joan Maragall.

Most of the library is below street level in order to preserve the mature trees on the villa grounds, now a public park. Building underground is a familiar strategy for architects, planners, and engineers seeking to minimize the impact of new architecture and infrastructure on the scarce open spaces of a city. But few are willing to go to the trouble and expense of burying new construction deep enough, and with a structure hefty enough, to support the mass of earth required for the growth of mature trees.

For the Joan Maragall Library, the local firm of BCQ Arquitectura folded the building into the retaining walls that separate the small raised park from the surrounding neighborhood, and converted its roofs into planters that are voluminous enough to permit trees to grow to maturity, as well as supporting other vegetation. At the level of the park, the slightly raised planters meld seamlessly into the existing walks and grounds. In between, deep, completely glazed light wells drop to the lower level.

The interior has been called a garden of light, a landscape in itself, with glass patios and ceramic walls defining well-lit spaces. The reading rooms are small, the size of a home living room. The walls are coated with honeycomb clay blocks, a simple material that provides silence, thermal comfort, warmth, and a relationship to land, appropriate in an underground space.

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