Stéphane Schmit & Alexandre Gauthoye

What exactly is a library ? The book is a souvenir, a piece of History published to be a witness of different times. This importance implies a protection from aging or uncareful handling. The answer of the librarian will consequently often be different from that of the researcher: the public is a curious parasite.

Prague offers an interesting site to place this symbolic program. The Czech Republic is willing to open itself to the World, to celebrate freedom and transparency using a cultural equipement. As for the precise situation Letna is located at a corner where a vast park at the edge of the city meets a burst district defined by small different buildings, the ambassies, as little units spread over the ground. That’s the start point of the composition.

Three towers are solid blocks hosting the protection of the documents, their treatment or their storage, and the administrative operations of the library. Out of these, circulations, reading or relaxation areas find their place in a creeping polymorph volume clutched with the towers which it meets on its way... It’s the organism, or the parasite, a growing part of the park that crawls up to the point of contact with the city.

The pathway of visitors is a free and continuous movement, inside as outside the parasite. The levels succeed hierarchically to each other following simple rules set by access controls. They communicate by large mezzanines, staircases or visual contacts. The movement is neither interrupted, nor diluted.

The exterior skin of the parasite is a composition made of alternating transparent and green (planted) facets. It’s a living skin, adaptative, intrusive. The towers stay neutral, massive, almost primitive behind a copper mesh. The project is organic, it will change and evolve naturally following the future library requirements.

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