Setúbal Municipal Library | HighPlan Portugal \ Architects

Living Library: this was the starting point for the proposed concept to participate in this competition: integrating an open access library integrated in an inclusive facility, configuring the space as a whole, a dynamic and lively space for a generations meeting, a new reference for the city of Setúbal.This concept relates to the square and the concert stage and proposes a permeable building, ensuring a visual contact with the adjacent streets, other buildings, the river, and all the activity inside this facility. We intend to promote a constant, visual and physical, connection between the interior and exterior realities, as if they were acting as an extension of one another.It is intended to create a concept for new uses in an innovative and multipurpose public space, which permanently invites for liveliness inside and outside, at the terrace of the coffee shop, the space for temporary exhibition where one may promote the culture of the region, or at the playground for kids, which improves generations’ interaction and even at spaces around the new facility, which is acts as a key factor for social and human development.This intense relationship between the inner reality and the public square is increased with the implementation of a roof garden, with high benefits in terms of environmental and economic sustainability , promoting a new landscape points of view beyond the square, through an accessible promontory, as an extension of the public space, and a new viewpoint of the city to the mountains and the sea.This project attempts to be a reference project, due to the space character and liveliness it promotes, as well as the sustainable energetic systems.