Baiona Library: Intervention in a Historical Building

The intervention is located at a former hospital originally built in the 16th century. Despite its status as a protected historical building, it has been subject to major alterations over the course of the centuries, also in recent interventions.

The renovation project aims to restore the desirable role of the long-forgotten outdoor spaces and redefine the historical identity of the building through the careful design of a succession of rooms to host its new public functions. History has been observed and questioned. This can be clearly perceived in the spatial sequence that guides visitors from the open urban fabric to the intimate conditions offered by the first-floor reading room

Encircling the patio, a wooden inner envelope is composed of a series of interstitial rooms. A maple wood skin embraces this space, from the floor to the walls. The scale of the interior intervention oscillates between the affective and domestic condition of the furniture and the grandness of the ark embracing both individuals and objects.