A project that lasts a long time is special, it becomes something that accompanies your life, it is built slowly… like yourself…
The English architect Peter Smithson commented that the fact that the Igualada Cemetery was built little by little made it more intense, gave it that air full of things that made everyone fascinated. As if the thousands of thoughts that arose during those years of construction had been trapped in there, in the air that surrounds it?
Those with trained eyes can detect these subtle influences on buildings.
The Palafolls library began more than ten years ago. It will be one of those architectures where someone will be able to see a special intensity: ten years of the history of Palafolls, of our lives, many people who have worked on it, many thoughts, journeys, hands, eyes, seasons, all contained in there…
The library project came to our studio at a time of tremendous expansion. After many years of holding competitions, exhibitions and classes at different universities, large projects began to be built: a Town Hall in the Netherlands, a music school in Hamburg, a Market and a part of the Santa Caterina neighborhood, a University in Venice and one in Vigo, two parks in Catalonia, the Parliament for Scotland… A large number of real projects filled our tables and heads, while the studio was filled with collaborators…
In the midst of those thousands of square meters of construction around the world and of so many tough responsibilities, the Palafolls library project gave us a breath of familiarity. It was like playing at home. Here we could allow ourselves the luxury of experimenting, doing the project guided by our intuition, as we had always done… and not just responding frantically, under pressure…
The Palafolls Library project has been able to evolve slowly: it began as a single large room covered with vaults, those magnificent vaults that Le Corbusier rediscovered for domestic architecture (as in the Sharabai house in Amedhabad) but which have always been part of of traditional Catalan architecture.
Then the turns began to get complicated in plan while the building began to rotate on itself, almost like a fetus inside the womb… (it may be a coincidence but at that time our son Domènec was growing in my belly!)
With that abstracted (inward-looking) form, the library presented itself to the Provincial Council contest. The model was in the shape of a loaf!
After winning it we agreed that the library could be les abstract (inward-looking) and we tried to open it. We wanted to keep that warmth of being protected inside, but we also saw the need to establish a better relationship with the outside world.
We did not open “the bread”… we simply cut it the same as a bread is cut: into slices!
A very strange geometry emerged: the cut vaults that continued to cover a single space…
We thought these cuts could give a fantastic light for those reading inside, and we kept working on it…
The walls became lines that would lead people from the outside in, and from the inside out, they would form secret patios where you could go out with your book in your hand and find a place under a tree to read… just like in old gardens …
The only real and solid wall of the library is the one that marks the limit between the outside and the inside. This line is “the door” of the library and is for us a true sensory transformation machine…
“Whoever crosses this magical limit goes into a mountain where light enters through many cracks. Without losing this new magical condition given to your body, you can go out into the courtyards again. There you will discover that you are in a different place. From a distance you will see that the park of the esplanas still exists, but you will be protected between low walls, in an older garden… You will be able to concentrate and read…”
… I am sure that this story would be familiar to Enric. We never explained it to ourselves, but we knew that this was what we were doing when we designed the Palafolls library that way.
The imaginary world was fundamental to working with Enric… however, with the condition of keeping it a secret!
Each user of the Palafolls library will keep the secret about the sensation they will experience when entering and transforming themselves… Perhaps not everyone will realise it, but their brief stay there will make them different…
Thus, given the necessary time to grow, this magical transformation machine is getting finished…
The Library has gone through different eras, it has been worked on by many people… but Valentà Agustà was always there… he himself has been the most powerful transformation machine for Palafolls!
