Library and Senior Citizens Centre

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Project Name: Library and Senior Citizens Centre
Construction year: 2008
Website:
Address: Carrer del Comte Borrell 44-46 , BARCELONA - Spain

Architect(s) : RCR Arquitectes (www.rcrarquitectes.es)
Project Category: Cultural | Public

Latitude: 41.3773
Longitude: 2.16275

Library and Senior Citizens' Centre

This building serves a new city-wide vision of Catalan urbanism, commissioned by ProEixample, a company formed in 1996 to acquire land in block interiors for public use. So strong is its motivation, the programme was not even the project's principal driving force. Instead, a break in the continuity of the street generated the project, providing a rare opportunity to fill the gap and give a new use to the courtyard beyond. The original design competition proposed a relatively generic administrative office. Once the spatial and social opportunities of RCR's winning composition were understood, however, the client agreed that a public amenity would be far better suited. Thus the library now occupies the gateway building, setting up complementary social dynamics with the senior citizens' centre, which was part of the initial proposal, at the rear of the courtyard.

Contributed by ArchiTeam