A LIBRARY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The digitalization of cultural content has allowed us to access these contents in a ubiquitous way today. As a result, libraries have lost the main function they had exercised for hundreds of years, which is to store and offer to read books inside a building. For this reason, libraries have begun a process of change and opening towards a new conception of the publicness, understood as a safe space of equality and participation where public discussion is possible and legitimate. Libraries should offer new ways of accessing information and knowledge aimed at a more varied number of users. Silent reading and book loan activities are still part of the library, but new learning formats that require multiple spatial situations are now included.
DIVERSITY AND FLEXIBILITY
Given this new challenge, the proposal for the new library in the neighborhood of Las Tablas features a cultural space that is expressed as an open-plan scheme without partitions that allows great versatility and flexibility of use while offering multiple spatial situations of a different character. This diversity allows users to find the ideal place for the cultural activity they want to practice.
The library layout is created by following the natural slope of the site, which has a 4m level difference between the north-east corner and its opposite. This original condition is transformed into four individual platforms with 1m level difference, and covered with a light-weight timber roof that gives continuity to the space.
ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM
The different uses of the new library are organized in a simple and intuitive way distributed throughout the four platforms. This organization prioritizes the sound levels emitted by each use and the possible conflicts between spaces that require more silence and those that are noisier. Thus, the noisiest uses are located in the first platform, next to the main entrance and reception such as the multipurpose spaces dedicated to organize conferences, workshops or other types of collective activities. In the next platform, the spaces of moderate noise such as children's spaces and kindergarten will be placed. A meter above are the reading areas, internet access and audiovisual for adults and finally, in the furthest level from the main entrance is the study room, which is separated from the rest of the space by a glass that guarantees silence. This study room has a separate entrance from the street that works 24h.
RE-CONFIGURATION AND PARTICIPATION
The library not only offers multiple spatial situations to be, learn, do or converse but also encourages the user to reconfigure and adapt the space that is to be used to the specific needs that are required at a given moment. This reconfiguration of space is a form of citizen participation since, in short, it is the user who has to finalize the organization of the library space.
To make this participatory strategy possible, the 1m level jumps between platforms are used to store a band of "flexible furniture" that offers a multitude of possibilities for the organization of the interior space.
