Cruz Alta Public Library

The project of a public library in a small inland city its not just about the aesthetic beauty of the buinding. This Project is an expression of cultural valorization in all its ways, including valuing of education, relationship between user and public space and valuing between city and citizen.

The building’s location was design with the pourpose of clean visual from the intern part of the lot from those who are on the street level, creating appreciation for a space that often ends up forgotten. These visuals were the beacons for the concept and the project’s development. In order to create the best visibility of the court’s centre, it was necessary to subtract part of the ground floor, wich enabled to create large spans and cantilevers in it’s shape. Thereby, a metalic structural system was chosen, highlighting the spatial trusses that surrounds the building and giving personality to the shape. This choice was also responsable for creating fully integrated internal spaces without the visual intervention of pillars.\nThe use of glass panels with perfurated plaques as cladding was a strategie to enable total integration between user, building and city. The subtractions created on the ground floor are responsable for the resultant squares that, in addition of the building’s transparency, affirm the intention of association between internal and external space.\nThe ground floor has a large public space, with squares shaded by the second floor and open green areas. The main accesses to the library happens from almost all sides of the main building, incouraging the user to traverse all the spaces of the court. The site’s centre shelters an auditorium and conference rooms, and a deposit is located underground. The second floor is composed in an open plan where most of the collection is found. The books are spred in ambience niches formed by low shelves in the center and high shelves on the outer walls. This pavement also counts with study rooms, a braille recording studio and administration office. The third floor is where the book collection and study areas lies. In this pavement are located the multimidia and multiuse spaces and the garden terrace access, wich is destinated to outdoor reading and contemplative leisure. This place is seen as a continuity of the ground floor, the proximity to nature added to the playfulness of the book, forming a complete closure of the proposed building.