Library, Bayonne

Library

BAYONNE (FR) - If you happen to visit Bayonne, be sure to visit the new library, the Bibliothèque de Cornebarrieu, which forms part of the complex of university buildings located in the heart of the Citadelle Vauban, which looks out over the city. The building designed by Jean de Jacinto and Duncan Lewis occupies an unusual site. The volume is placed beneath the earth glacis of a rampart, the silhouette of which had to be reconstructed in compliance with the drawing by the 17th-century military architect. The entire structure is made of untreated concrete and the large atrium windowpanes are masked by a concrete screen, which filters the light and returns the slope to its 45-degree gradient. From the outside, the concrete mesh provides a sense of graphic continuity, which conceals the construction without making it disappear. From the inside, the two-level volume provides this numinous space with a filtered light that is conducive to concentration.