Author: Valentina Martín Millán
Passionate about architecture, illustration and nature. Seeking to build a more sensitive world for all living beings.
NAME OF WORK: Virgilio Barco Library.
ARCHITECT: Rogelio Salmona.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Archdaily, among others.
LOCATION: Bogotá, Colombia.
YEAR: 2001
M2: 16,092 m2
The Virgilio Barco Library by Rogelio Salmona is located in the city of Bogotá, Colombia and is part of a complex made up of the Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park and the Virgilio Barco Library Park. It was built by architect Rogelio Salmona and was declared an Asset of National Cultural Interest in 2007.
The library is consolidated as a cultural, social and recreational center, where its route, being one of its main components, reveals a program that seeks to unite the architecture of its interior with the surrounding landscape of the Bogotá savanna.
We can see that the composition of the place occurs before the composition in plan or section occurs. The architect seeks to first understand where it is located in order to develop the project. However, the place must be understood as something broader than just the space where it will be built. Thus, we can understand that the determinants of the place of implementation of the project are: firstly, the false plateau where the lot was, which was elevated because it was a place where debris accumulated. In the background, its closest neighbor, which is the Simón Bolívar Park. And thirdly, but no less important, the views, not only towards the hills but also towards the Bogotá sky.
Here the architect builds a project distanced from the city, self-absorbed, but which at the same time makes it possible to relate more intimately with the hills and the sky, in a more poetic way. To achieve this, the architect perforates the lot, introducing the project, and in turn surrounds it with mirrors of water, resembling an island. Thus he creates this small city where the paths become as relevant as the living spaces.
Regarding its composition, we can see that the architect used a concentric system and a Cartesian grid for the design of the project. Here we can understand how these circular spaces become the limit of a space and how the linear spaces become access routes to these centers. However, we can see that these spaces are not always found one after the other. In the case of the newspaper library and its route, we can see that they do not have a direct relationship, but are united thanks to an intermediate vestibule that becomes this mediating space, an interstitial space, which is neither concentric nor Cartesian.
Salmona resorts to the use of this interstitial space in all of his projects, being spaces that have as much value as the spaces of travel and the spaces of permanence. These do not have a specific use and are not fully formed, turning them into spaces that allow mediation between the concentric character of the living spaces, with the Cartesian character of the route. It should be noted that the architect uses throughout the project a combination of exposed concrete with the typical Bogotá brick, and it is precisely with this brick that Salmona seeks to shape and delimit each space through the plot that he uses.
Regarding the open and covered spaces of the library, that is, the relationship between the emptiness and the fullness of the architectural/urban plane, we can see that the covered space predominates and its contour is well defined. This is how we understand that the open space, together with the interior circulations, serve as mediating spaces between the living areas.
Speaking of the conformation of the space, we can see that it is an addition project, where a set of singular elements are grouped together in order to create a totality that is not completely evident. This is achieved thanks to the distances between spaces, expanding, as much as possible, the interaction between them.
Internally, all spaces seek to relate in a sensory way with elements such as landscape, light, water, among other things. It frames savannah landscapes through large windows with views to the outside, it frames the sky through skylights that allow a view upwards, it maintains a constant relationship between the user and the natural light of the Bogotá sun, creating light entries at different points of the project, and constantly maintains the relationship with water, creating mirrors and water routes both internally and externally.
In conclusion, this is one of Rogelio Salmona's most outstanding projects, where we can appreciate an architecture that is concerned with making the user truly feel what it is like to inhabit a space in a sensory way, where we not only see that there is a tension in the project with the exterior, but also an introspection between the project and the user who inhabits it.