Library of the UNED (National Distance Learning University), Madrid, Spain

Project 1989-1994

Interior-exterior contrast: sharpness in contrast to the feel for comfort provided by a generous use of wood and the plaster ceilings.

The readers are isolated from the motorway environment. An alternative to 19^th century libraries: occupying the perimeter instead of the central area. The bookshelves close the façade and, together with the coffered ceiling, let the light in. Within the project concept, light does not mean views. Instead, the latter are far-off, silhouetted over the shelves against the narrow strips of high windows; an appearance reminiscent of the fresco paintings in Labrouste’s libraries.

The layout is reversed upstairs: The central part is solid and the areas designated as the café, meeting room and offices are actually bay windows facing the historical buildings of Madrid and the Casa de Campo urban park. The entire layout is based on the spacious main entrance hall, a hypostyle space where the outer small square –almost an atrium– is attached to the building. Outdoors, the use of brick is evocative of the first City University of Madrid in the 1930s.

Author: José Ignacio Linazasoro
Collaborators: L. Sesé, J. Puldain