International open competition Library for 3,600 users and 2 million volumes Won Second Place

We were awarded a joint second place in the competition for a new public library in Guadalajara, Mexico. Shortlisted from 262 entries from 46 different countries. The Jury was composed of a number of experts and distinguished architects as Bill Lacy, executive director of the Pritzker award, and Robert Cambell Pulitzer Price among other library international experts. First View The Library will become the link between the old culture of Mexico’s Bajio and the globalized culture of the world.

A book is a tool for thinking, a bridge to knowledge and human achievement. We envision a library as a filter. We want all visitors to the Centro Cultural to be unavoidably dragged to our open court. Therefore, the new building must become a point of reference. Its architecture will be responsible for attracting first-time visitors towards a welcoming, fun, lively atmosphere. A library should not be understood only as a gigantic book container or a place to bore. We propose instead an adventurous spatial array that opens up symbolically its doors towards the park. From the main court, a monumental scale urban atrium that serves also as a gate to the complex, the visitor faces the “reading boxes and terraces. This is not what is called an “architectural gesture”. In other words, it is not gratuitous. Having a partially covered plaza it allows us to shade all reading spaces without sacrificing the beautiful vistas to the tree’s foliage. Climate control was carefully taken into consideration, provoking maximum shaded surfaces.