On Thursday, 11 September 2014, Felipe Pich-Aguilera, a professor of Projects and the Director of the CEIM Chair in the ESARQ School of Architecture at the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (UIC), inaugurated Fondo Library in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, his latest project. This multipurpose public building is in the city centre of Santa Coloma and its aim is not only to equip the neighbourhood with public services, but also to fit into the city's multicultural urban environment. The project highlights concepts such as urban sustainability and the advantages of a dense, compact structure.
The building is located in a very densely occupied urban area with few streets and little free space. The public services in the area are housed in buildings that were formerly residential apartments, so they do not enjoy the benefits of purpose-built structures.
The new multipurpose Fondo library building aims to respond to the needs and requirements of a dense city and to concentrate in one building all the different functions that are usually widely distributed in different ground-floor offices around the city.
The new library was designed to multiply the "zero level" by creating ground-floor features on all the different vertical floors. The design of the interior of the new Fondo building reflects the different levels between the streets in its immediate surroundings. This establishes an internal flow that enables the building to be used as part of the outdoor space, thus converting it into a public facility, a public square and a street.
The entire building was analysed to include bioclimatic systems that reduce the demand for electricity and climate control systems, and the building structure was designed with open spaces that can be put to many different uses.
