Comments on: España Library / Giancarlo Mazzanti

By: Villanueva | MF+TDC

Villanueva | MF+TDC — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:06:37 +0000

[...] di Villanueva dello studio Parapolis (Meza + Piñol + Ramírez + Torres) o di quella di España di Giancarlo Mazzanti a Santo Domingo in Colombia (2005 progetto, 2007 costruzione) è, oltre a conservare e rendere [...]

By: Alejandro

Alejandro — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 14:30:30 +0000

To all the comments above,

This abstraction of a space is very interesting, reading some of people’s comments i can see some of us are just not ready for the future. Our future is not going to be more boxes, the future is abstraction; therefore cities have to change no matter what type of architecture/form they use to follow. We must look into the future creating smarter building and at the same time leaving a clean “signature” of our era. DIFFRENT IS GOOD!

By: AD Round Up: Libraries Part I

AD Round Up: Libraries Part I — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:21:11 +0000

[...] España Library This library by Giancarlo Mazzanti, finished its construction in 2007 and is located in Santo Domingo Colombia. The Project is located on one of the hillsides that have been affected by the violence since the 80´s because of the drug traffic network that operates in the city of Medellin. It is part of the government’s social master plan program to give equal economic and social opportunities to the population (read more…) [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:51:16 +0000

I think that it is not the problem, if you could see the topograpy of the terrain where they placed the library and the trace of the “streets” and paths you may think that they made a good solution, its true, it’s only open from one side, but its the side were the public transportation is located. Other fact is that the area is a highly densed one so, you would notice that it is already a big neighborhood as big as any other or even bigger, and the library was part of a big project were they built libraries in most of the marginal places in medellin, that library was made to cover the necesities of that zone.
I’m not defending the project if you can read my last comment you will see what I think was poor.

By: One

One — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 10:23:43 +0000

I do not think this library is placed in a right context. First of all, the building is on the hill up there, such maks extremely difficult to go there very casually. Secondly the building is closed in accessibilty in such extend that it can only approach only from one side. I belive anylibrary should be placed in the middle of a city or neighbourhood so that it is open and accessible to most of inhabitants.

It is a nice looking sculpture, but this does no help overcome the hindrance on context.

By: Cesar Castro

Cesar Castro — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:13:15 +0000

The execution is very poor, considering the presence of the buildings into the surrounding neighborhoods. It’s undeniable the beauty of the shapes, but I would bet how much photoshop have the pictures: When you visit the library, you can see the HUGE concrete stains sliding over the ¿stone? finishing of the facade. Despite of this, the biggest merit of the building is the public space generated throught the decks surrounding it. They have the delicacy the buidings don’t have.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:51:06 +0000

Hi everyone, I went to that library the last year, and my opinion is that the project really helped to revitalize the zone, the library is located in a zone that was one of the most dangerous zones in Medellin, an article in the local paper said that the crime in the area decreased like 90% since the construction of the Library and the Metro Cable (metro cable is a railway that transport the people from the metro station to the top of the mountain where the people live), it helped to turn a red zone into a touristic zone. The design of the facades is audacious, in the other hand when I went all over the building and my reaction studying the interior was quite disappointing, because the audacious of the exterior design is not reflected in the interior, to me it looked like the work of two different architects, also I noticed some weak points and the most important was the acoustic, if you can see the sections, you will see that the interior is all open, the lower floor is dedicated to kids, and if you are on the top floor you can hear all the noise that the kids produce, also the illumination in the kids area is poor.
thanks it was my opinion as an architect, I’ll be glad if someone can give a second opinion.

By: Virginia

Virginia — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:07:02 +0000

I love these buildings. I am a designer, not an architect. My first reaction when I saw the photograph was that they were great granite slabs, complementing the existing landscape. No unsightly flashes of glass or colouring to scream acknowledgement. Simply sitting quietly looking over the town. Cathedral presence. Entirely appropriate.

By: First Magazine® // Literature // Teach a gunman to read and maybe he'll reform

First Magazine® // Literature // Teach a gunman to read and maybe he'll reform — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:39:00 +0000

[...] Read more HERE [...]

By: Augusto

Augusto — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:51:49 +0000

Scledon : What do you mean by “less form, more architecture”?, I think there`s a contradiction, one term implies the other.

This is a nice building