Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
Escuela Técnica Superior d' Arquitectura de Barcelona
P63 | ROOM OF BOOKS. Catalonia National Library.
by Pau Bajet
Wouldn’t it be nice if projects were not made by us. If they did not rise capriciously wandering from a pencil’s stroke on a piece of paper, but that in the narration of a process some inputs would reveal themselves, a set of totally arbitrary (but not random) self-imposed laws, which were found on the traces of the site and use, appearing as the genuine driving force of the project. City: Giving a representative frontal facade to ‘Plaça Catalunya’ due to its distinctive location. Sewing carefully with preexisting buildings to understand the project as a continuity of the city. Library: Instead of building in piled floors, thinking of the library as a unique storage space in a vertical ascension, an unlimited void where the sight finds no end. In addition, assuring that every built element is at the same time structure of the whole, in other words architecture. Finally, the library can be explained as the sequence of three issues: (1) Hall, a void for arriving, meeting and silencing surrounded by the presence of books, with no tables. (2) Books, shelves and shelves into piles, building a wall that defines the boundary of the room of books. (3) Reading, within the width of the façade, books open under the light.
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Pau Bajet studied at UPC-ETSABarcelona where he received his Master in Architecture with Honours in 2013. He is a teaching assistant (2009-to date) in the “habitatge i ciutat” Housing Studio at UPC-ETSAB and received a MEC Research Scholarship from the Spanish government in 2012. He was runner-up in Europan 11 (Getaria, Spain) in association with Oscar Linares. His Diploma was awarded with the 1st Prize in the Epson Student Awards of Diplomas at UPC-ETSAB in 2013. In 2009 he obtained the Public’s Choice Award for the installation “Favela: under construction” in eme3-Collapse Architecture Festival (Barcelona). His work has been exhibited at “Semperdepot Atelierhaus” in Wien, “Círculo de Bellas Artes” in Madrid, “PLACE Built Environment Centre” in Belfast, “Centre de Cultura Contemporània” in Barcelona and at the UPC-ETSAB. He has collaborated with different offices, such as JFB Architecture, Peris-Toral Arquitectes and Tonet Sunyer Arquitecte.
Escuela Técnica Superior d' Arquitectura de Barcelona
P63 | ROOM OF BOOKS. Catalonia National Library.
by Pau Bajet
Wouldn’t it be nice if projects were not made by us. If they did not rise capriciously wandering from a pencil’s stroke on a piece of paper, but that in the narration of a process some inputs would reveal themselves, a set of totally arbitrary (but not random) self-imposed laws, which were found on the traces of the site and use, appearing as the genuine driving force of the project. City: Giving a representative frontal facade to ‘Plaça Catalunya’ due to its distinctive location. Sewing carefully with preexisting buildings to understand the project as a continuity of the city. Library: Instead of building in piled floors, thinking of the library as a unique storage space in a vertical ascension, an unlimited void where the sight finds no end. In addition, assuring that every built element is at the same time structure of the whole, in other words architecture. Finally, the library can be explained as the sequence of three issues: (1) Hall, a void for arriving, meeting and silencing surrounded by the presence of books, with no tables. (2) Books, shelves and shelves into piles, building a wall that defines the boundary of the room of books. (3) Reading, within the width of the façade, books open under the light.
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