AND-RÉ entered this competition proposal for the Setúbal Public Library in Setúbal, Portugal. The idea behind this propsal was to have a social space while at the same time maintaining an area of culture, knowledge, and peace. The concept was developed with the purpose of controlling the external environmental conditions in order to manipulate the internal space.
It is an introspective system, developed around a central courtyard, a recurring theme in many examples in the history of architecture, serving a purpose of reflective internalization and privacy. This space is a positive affirmation of expression of society’s need to move away from an external active, stressed and noisy environment, as an opportunity to reach balance and harmony.
The building, although being an organizational system that develops itself introspectively, also opens up strategically into the urban fabric, rising punctually at two points, as cloth, allowing passage under the object, allowing the crossing, offering the interior, creating a distinct new urban reality, a protected space, understood as an exceptional moment in the sequential chronology of urban routes, an invitation for a pause, enticing the discovery, inviting the crossing, welcoming the entrance, and embracing the citizen.
The conscious choice of the circular shape provides a peaceful, almost implied relation to the context of confrontation. By its natural features, the form is fluid and continuous, allowing a subtle, yet direct, relation with the environment. The circular shape allows the required intelligibility for the assimilation of the building. The shape is not an imposition in the context, but a dynamic challenge to the environment.
