Architect：N8 Studio

Location：São Paulo, Brazil

Category：Libraries Universities

Our competition proposal for the New Library of the Law faculty of the Sao Paulo University begins with a reflection regarding identity: what is the role of a library in the contemporary context of information? What can be the functions of a new library in the city center — already consolidated and having a strong landscape identity?

The New Law Library starts from a formal response, one in which its formal organization establishes new conditions of use, misuse and narratives — beyond a hermetic repository, the library invites its users to debate and discussion. Its architecture, by dealing with formal issues, must feed the possibilites of encounter.

By articulating the program in the manner of forming new connections between spaces, we provide new ways to consider its use, with a multiplicity of possible occupations and becoming, as a principle, support for activities and events. The library transforms itself into a forum for discussions, in which the lightness of the ground floor and its folding plans connect the interior with the street — the public space extends into the auditorium space, the café or the shop, where the concentration of the entrance articulates and distributes the flow, inviting the users to actively construct the events. We call this space the mixing chamber of the architecture, landscape and community.

The interiors reinforce critical thinking and discussion, materializing in its spaces the ways of creating visual connections on the vertical axis and through the differentiation of reading spaces: from isolated reading rooms, to large discussion tables — or informal steps at the stairs. An almost literal representation of the urban meeting points.

This restructuring follows the logic of the city as a meeting point, with different conditions for different — and unpredictable — uses.

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