Matosinhos Library
Location
Matosinhos
Year
2022
Area
3,200 m²
Client
Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos
Status
Completed
(01) Overview
A public library of deep window reveals, where every reading desk faces a wall of indirect light.
The brief asked for a library that would stay cool without air conditioning on a west-facing site. Our answer was depth: the façade is a 90-centimetre zone of concrete fins that shade the glass until four in the afternoon.
A quiet room for a loud town
The reading room sits on the first floor, lifted above the traffic of the avenue. Its ceiling is a field of deep coffers that absorb sound and bounce daylight down onto the tables.
On the ground floor, a covered arcade is open to the street at all hours, with benches, a book drop and the town’s first public piano.
Performance
Natural ventilation, a thermal mass of 1,800 tonnes of concrete and a rainwater cistern under the courtyard. Energy use is 62% below the national benchmark for public buildings.
(02) More work
