> Sense of Place, Sustainable Architecture, Technological Solutions

The requirement of the architectural programme was to build the new Municipal Library in the central district of Legnano -ITA- with particular care for the context and for functional and technological solutions. The building had to guarantee high energetic standards and had to be ecologically oriented. The strategy was to lift up the structure from the ground allowing the existing park to flow across the building. A new North/South pedestrian axis was created, with the intent to tie previously separated parts of the city. Nature and green aspects permeate the building: the paths to the main and to the secondary entrance are surrounded by lawn and flowerbeds, while the green roof is folded so that it can be perceived from different positions. On the horizontal part of the roof, photovoltaic modules and solar panels help energetic savings, as the ventilated double skin south façade does; when necessary, direct sunlight is avoided, thanks to the roller blinds inside the double skin façade. The north-closed character of the building has a double function: while preventing from entering noise and air pollution coming from the street and the shopping mall, the thick walls avoid heat dispersion.
The exterior vertical partitions are characterized by the use of glass and nets made of green enameled copper wire: the wide south oriented glass façade, allows spatial expansion toward the quiet, green park so that Nature can get into the building; the green woven nets for cladding, are a figurative tribute – literally a dress for Architecture - to
the previous historical presence on the site: an important cotton mill, now demolished. In order to point out how strictly the building is related to Nature, a wooden path through the park heads us, to the main entrance at the first level. The library is a three-level structure: at the ground level, a covered plaza let the green park come across the building in front of the street entry; a coffee bar, an auditorium and some retail shops have direct access from the street and from the covered plaza; a group of stairs and elevators in a ground hall, lead to the main library hall at the
first level; an entrance from the park and one from the street lead to this level too. From the main hall, you can have direct access to the reading room, to the children’s library, or to the digital and sound archives; the reading room is a wide luminous open space with a generous park view; from here you can reach the second level reading room, a kind of balcony where you can have an overview of the lower level and of the park; staff’s offices and archives are placed at the second level.