Media Library

Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, France 2000

Situated at the corner of a rectangular intersection, surrounded by apartment buildings of identical style and size, this first public building in the town of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande displays its volume along the planes that divide the façades of the neighbouring buildings into three layers: substructure, main structure, and attic.

The building occupies three levels. The ground floor contains the reception area and multimedia room; the second and third floors house the children’s and adult areas, respectively.

In vertical terms, the building is clearly organized into two parts. The dominant part contains the lending and reading facilities ; the servent part houses circulation, offices, and services.

As a public facility, the media library expresses its identity through architecture that exposes its tectonic dimension. The main structure stands on five rectangular piers anchored in the ground.
The bearing façade is made up of precast wall pillars interconnected by horizontal components in additive mode.

The relatively abstract external appearance alters the perception of the town by establishing the structure as a marker and creating a new urban scale.