The multidisciplinary architectural project for the renovation and expansion of the Geneva Library, chosen through a competition, was designed by the Portuguese architecture studio VASSCO, ACE in conjunction with Adão da Fonseca – Engenheiros Consultores, was announced today.
The “Larnage” project is characterized by the landscape redefinition of the distribution of the courtyard of the Bastions (name of the place where the Geneva Library is located), as well as by a search for reinterpretation of the relationship of the building with the Park of the Bastions and Candolle Street, reads a statement released today by the city of Geneva, which promoted the contest.
The jury, which unanimously chose the Portuguese project, “was especially convinced of the option of replacing the two annexes of the Library with two new contemporary, bright and transparent pavilions.”
“The noble spaces of the restored historic building are returned to the public. The library is conceived as a place of study, meeting and exchange, accessible to the public and open to the park, conducive to the implementation of its cultural and scientific programming. A place whose concept architectural also reflects the institution’s will to open itself clearly to the city, respecting the strong heritage elements of the existing building,” the statement also reads.
The projects that were in competition, as well as the chosen project, will be exhibited at the Faubourg Forum from Tuesday until December 8.
The Geneva Library, founded in the 16th century, currently has a collection of two million documents and another four million images documenting Geneva and the region where the city is located.
Source: TSF
