Rocks of hope
The public library designed by Giancarlo Mazzanti, in one of Medellin’s poorest favelas, is an icon of the
city’s social and cultural rebirth.
Platform and rocks
The Espana library overlooks the hilly landscape of Medellin from one of the neighbourhoods, which was hardest hit by drug-related violence in the 1990s. The structure combines three functions - a library, study rooms, and an auditorium - each in its own freestanding volume. These volumes, which resemble enormous rocks, are located over a platform that provides a shared public space connected to the district’s footpaths and pedestrian movement.
The volumes were envisioned as iconic features that detach the library from its context the intention being to generate a fragment of a new landscape. With their oxide-enriched ceramic slab cladding, the facades of the “rock” buildings are intentionally hermetic so that the interiors flooded with light from above are perceived as totally separate and distinct from the daily experience of the adjacent neighbourhood. The buildings and platform are open 24 hours a day.
Simple technology
The project relies on local labour and construction techniques and makes use of deliberately simplified materials and details. The rocks have site-poured reinforced concrete frames that are independent of the platform structure consisting of concrete-filled steel columns and stone caissons, that serve as containing walls for the hillside. The outer skin of the volumes stands free of the floor slabs, to which it is attached by metal stays and struts, forming cavity spaces that allow air and light to circulate as well as creating spectacular oblique views of the valley landscape. The interiors were designed to have a series of different impacts on users and visitors, an effect underlined by changes of materials: coloured vinyl floors, reconstituted wood wall coverings, and stained-glass windows.
Text by Fabricio Galanti
Photos by Iwan Baan
Giancarlo Mazzanti
(Colombia, 1964) architect. He lives in Bogota, Colombia. His work reveals a constant concern for the civic role of architecture, especially in public planning and construction schemes. His projects include: footbridges for the Transmilenio mobility programme, Bogota (2000), the international conference centre in Medellin (with Daniel Bonilla and Rafael Esguerra, 2005), and the Leon de Greif and Espana libraries in Medellin (both 2007). His office is currently working on three state schools in Bogota and two in Cartagena.
Architect
Giancarlo Mazzanti
Design team
Andres Sarmento, Juan Manuel Gil, Fredy Pantoja, Pedro Saa, Gustavo Vasques, Ivan Ucros
Structural engineering
Sergio Tobon, Alberto Aschner
Contractor
Arquitectura y Concreto
Client
Alcaldia de Medellin
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