PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HISTORICAL ARCHIVE IN BAIONE, SPAIN
Embracing Wooden Surfaces within an Historic Building
Murado & Elvira Architects
This project for a public library and historical archive in the city of Baiona, Spain, creates a public space that transmits a sense of domesticity to its users. The idea behind the project is born from the desire to create a bespoke wood “suit” that clads the interiors of an historical building, leaving the original exterior of the Sancti Spiritus hospital largely unaltered. The architects created a spatial sequence that guides the visitor from the open spaces of the surrounding urban fabric into the more intimate condition of the reading rooms. While on the exterior the building appears to have been left untouched, entering inside visitors are immersed in an environment characterised by this new skin. Entirely finished in wood, it rejuvenates the building with a largely monothematic intervention and without cancelling its history.
