Alexis de Tocqueville Library, Caen
Architect: OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Barcode Architects
Year: 2016
Location: Caen, France
Category: Cultural / Library
Status: Unbuilt
About
Located on one of the docks over the River Orne as it flows through Caen, the Bibliothèque Multimédia à Vocation Régionale (BMVR) sits at the tip of a peninsula historically devoted to the port activities and that is now undergoing a redevelopment process to include residential uses and services. The project aims to connect the center of the city with the new urban tissue, designating two axes that link historic and cultural landmarks in the city – the Abbaye-aux-Hommes and the Abbaye-aux-Dames – with the new constructions and with the central station, respectively. These intersecting axes turn the site into a symbolic center where culture and technology converge, stressing the building’s vocation: becoming a multimedia library on a regional level. In this way, the library consists of two elongated volumes placed along the axis with two large reading rooms and which meet in the large central atrium, encouraging a maximum interface across different disciplines in the cultural program. The shape of the two volumes maximizes available natural light, and optimizes the bay width in structural terms, favoring interaction with its public environment and ensuring flexibility inside the building... [+] [+] [+]