CLIENT
LOCATION
YEAR
LOCATION
YEAR
MILANO, ITALY
2022
Building a library today means creating a community space, a symbol of civil life that speaks to Milan and a broader, more connected dimension. A space, freed from the physical condition limited to the preservation of books and its constraints. The internet and the connections of digital society, the differences in how people experience culture, the fluidity of today's society, no longer require spaces that respond precisely to a particular type. The library becomes an excuse to be together, to meet, to get to know other people. A place where you can find privacy, immersed in your book or on your computer surrounded by strangers, when it’s impossible to find your own peaceful space at home.
The library adapts to the housing, school, and social situation of the city, becoming an extension of it, welcoming everyone and offering the spaces that are often missing in daily life. The library is therefore not just a space for reading, but a space for interaction, creativity, a productive space once again, as it was in the past, a place not only to transmit and preserve but to create culture.
The library is therefore a container, a refuge, that every citizen can interpret freely and experience in their own way. A physical space that provides a variety of different characteristics of lighting, spatiality, and noise, which each person can choose according to their needs. Everyone can find their own space within it, where the intimate and the monumental coexist, as well as the private and the collective.
For this reason, the library can become a square, a part of the neighborhood that is complex but at the same time transparent, a garden, a contemporary secular cathedral. A space that breathes in synergy with the city, where the boundary between inside and outside is blurred. Where the only limit is its borders: a translucent wall that protects the interior and establishes the presence of a special place.