Urtzi Grau wins international design competition New Library Lorenteggio

New Library Lorenteggio
New Library Lorenteggio
Image © Urtzi Grau

Architect and senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Urtzi Grau and a team of architects, has partnered with architects Jocelyn Froimovich, Stefano Rolla and Laura Signorelli, have been selected to design a new library in the Lorenteggio district of Milan, Italy.

New Library Lorenteggio
Image © Urtzi Grau

With a budget of 6 million euros, funded by the municipality of Milan and the European Union, the new library will house recreation and reading areas, music and new media resources and spaces for creativity, training and study. In summer, the walls of the ground floor will open out onto the surrounding park.

New Library Lorenteggio
Image © Urtzi Grau

“The brief for the project included social spaces, it included multifunctional rooms that would allow for activities that aren’t usually associated with a library, like job classes, concerts, kids’ activities – it’s an expanded version of a library that I think is also quite contemporary,” Grau says.

New Library Lorenteggio
Image © Urtzi Grau

Energy efficiency and sustainability measures are also key to the design. Designed as a greenhouse, the library will have almost no carbon footprint. Solar panels on the roof will enable the building to provide energy to the city grid.

New Library Lorenteggio
Image © Urtzi Grau

Despite its contemporary feel, Grau says the new library is a nod to the post-war period in which Lorenteggio was built, a time when Milan was going through a wave of modernisation that brought with it a sense of almost limitless potential.

New Library Lorenteggio
Plans

This commitment to the past was noted by the competition judges, who applauded “the strong recognition with which [the design] interprets the historical identity of the district in a contemporary way”.

New Library Lorenteggio
Exploded axonometric

Grau and his team’s winning design for the Lorenteggio library was selected by the City Council of Milan from more than 200 entries, and responds to years of urban studies and other participatory design initiatives that defined the needs of the Lorenteggio community. It’s part of a wider regeneration plan that will strengthen the neighbourhood’s public spaces.

New Library Lorenteggio
Elevations and Sections

“Suburbs on the periphery are still part of the city; therefore, they have rights to the city that’s equal to all other places. This sort of revitalisation project is about recognising those rights and the rights of the citizens, and mitigating the difference in investment, transformation and value.” The library is due to open in 2021. Source and images Courtesy of Urtzi Grau.

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