PORTFOLIO
BIBLIOTHÈQUE DE FRANCE
O.M.A.
Office of Metropolitan Architecture
ARCHITECTURE DEGREE PROJECT
This project consists on the virtual recovery and display of the modern architectural heritage, projected but not built. In this case, I have chosen the Bibliothèque de France of O.M.A.. Project designed on 1989 for an international contest in Paris, by president François Mitterrand.
Therefore, the aim of this project will be to represent as closely as possible the building projected by Rem Koolhaas, trying to value and enhance different parts of it, showing it as better as possible, and transmitting the message and idea Koolhaas wanted to transmit with this project.
Explain the project of the National Library of France of O.M.A. by text it may be one of the most complicated tasks that even Koolhaas had when he tried to explain it in the contest. That's why we will support often with images, drawings, photomontages and all kind of graphics support, made by myself, to deepen all aspects.
Of course, juries, not architects, decide competitions, but first there is our own, invisible judgement: for each project there is a beyond – a domain where no jury will follow. Greater than the total loss to all the conspiracies, political pressures, blatant corruption –of all those “masterworks” that they didn’t give first prize– is the tragedy of the even more brilliant works that we didn’t dare to imagine. Koolhaas (1995).
In this image and to start with the material produced for the Degree Final Work, the building is shown in its final state, in the real location where it had been placed. The relationship with the Seine River is also one of the most characteristic qualities of the project, that's why we have opted for this view, giving importance to the exhibitionist nature of the building toward the river.
In the first drawing the public spaces are shown, including the five libraries, and spaces that give access to the hall. Furthermore, we can observe the cutting of the glass facade and the gaps would be left as transparent, while the rest would translucency treatment. It's also seen the vertical communication cores and the elements that connect the different libraries.
The second one shows mainly the structure. The voids created in the slabs and in the structure walls. Walls that work like a beams. It's impossible not to think about Matta-Clark when you see that drawing, and even moree seeing the next one, created accidentally from the bottom to the top part, showing only the slabs sectioned. In this image you can see at the beginning the pebbles, then the cross, the spiral and the shell. All but the loop, not seen from that point of view.
Those are replicas of the models created by Koolhaas years after the contest for an exhibition in Montreal, maybe to try again to explain the building easily. In them you can see, by first, the different public elements, the elevators system and the office building at the end. It's like the "negative" of the voids in the building. What is solid really is empty space inside. And the second one is just the opposite. The negative and positive of the building.
But as an approach of the project, I've created how it should have been represented, in my opinion, to understand even more the concept of the building. Just placing a glass box in the first one, to delimit the real volume. In the second one, the true volume should be with transparency, showing the different levels, showing that is not a heavy solid but a big cube where things are happened inside, with gaps, walls and books.
Public spaces
Communication elements
Storage
Structure
Slabs
Facades
Those six elements has been chosen to explain the parts the building is composed. The public spaces, mainly the five libreries, with different shapes each one, creating spaces completly different between them. Communication elements to join those public spaces with staris, elevators and ramps. The storage, composed of hundreds and hundreds of shelves, distributed in the building consistently, filling the spaces the public espaces are not occupying. In the structure scheme is visible the voids that those public spaces create in the walls. The slabs, also perforated by them and the facades, of which I will explain more later.
That scheme of the shelves, created again another accidental image. In the next image is seen only the shelves layer. It express the digital and the modern conception of the building Koolhaas was trying to show with his building. It's supposed it was going to be the most technological library in Europe, at least, where the latest technologies would live together, making the search and the way to store easier. This image tries to show that technological progress, making by the shelves, the information "solid".
1.The Pebbles
2. The Cross
3. The Spiral
4. The shell
5. The Loop
Here the main Five Libraries. Coming up next, I'm going to explain each library, in order to understand each one like a single element, but connected and related with the all ohers.
1. THE PEBBLES - The Sound and Moving Image Library
It is the first of the five libraries that the main public spaces are composed. It contains cinemas, television, music, concert halls and booths. All these uses are located in four irregular volumes, which promptly emptied the volume of the podium where they are and linking the of ground level with the called "Great Hall", the first public space of the building. It is the monumental space receiver of the visitors, in which some pebbles pierce the floor and pass through, revealing part of what continues under different functions. The city of Paris as a backdrop, the Seine river on the left, the floor that fits pebbles and neon signs announcing that something is happening inside the building.
2. THE CROSS - The Recent Acquisitions Library
It consists of two intersecting voids. One horizontal, the reading room. TV rooms and audio form a continuous auditorium that slopes down to the river views. At its intersection a theater is located and along and behind the walls of the reading room a series of video booths are situated lined up.
3. The Spiral - The Reference Library
This library is formed by a continuous spiral that in three turns connects five open shelves levels, study cabins, etc. In it, each of the intersections allows thematic or spatial variation. It begins on the 13th floor, and the spiral ends on the 17th floor leading to an empty space directly on the west facade, allowing visitors to enjoy the spectacular views of the city of Paris.
The façades should have a similar effect to natural. Maybe the best for that was glass, but not conventionally applied, but analogous to a cloud, able to be transparent, opaque, translucent or a combinations of them, simultaneously. A changing building, shown in a manner depending on the hour of day in which it is located, but also in relation to the weather conditions. One of the most crucial conditions of Architecture on this scale is that the design of the exterior and interior must be two separated issues to be developed.
4. The Shell - The Catalogue Room
This is a space which connects The Spiral and The Loop. It is a void that, at first glance, resembles a pebble of The Library of Image and Sound mentioned above. This area, besides being a connector space, and be located on the 19th floor, enjoying a panoramic view of Paris, is also a catalog more.
Space is pierced in three different places, in orther to be the more accessible space with these dimensions of the building. One is the elevator, that not only goes through the volume, but also modifies it, for issues of functionality. The other two holes are for mecanic stairs.
5. The Loop - The Research Library
It is characterized by having inside a space dedicated to scientific study, in which the floor becomes wall, then ceiling, and then back into wall. A Mobius strip that curl the curl in the catacombs of building. It consists of a spiral with a diameter covering five upper floors. In those five levels are located study rooms, conference rooms and storage spaces. The base of the spiral continues until the ends to meet the two opposite walls, creating a space through one side of the building, as we have seen in "The Cross".
Reading rooms and conference rooms are located on the both sides, alternating the side on which are depending on the shape of the loop. In the background, a panoramic view of Paris again, and in both sides. In the middle, right in the center of the loop, there is another smaller loop. In the center of the image, and with a reddish hue representing transparency, we observe the mecanic staris, which connect to the Shell in its lower level, and with the top of the building.
To finish this Final Degree Work, a night view of the building, located in the real place it should have been.
