The project comes back to the limits of the plot and proposes a plan where two programmatic bands intersect, referring to four strategic landmarks: the Men’s Abbey to the west and the Ladies’ Abbey to the north looking at the historic center, then the station to the west and the peninsula to the east to open on the developing elements of the city of Caen.
Project Name: Alexis de Tocqueville Library
Studio Name: Clement Blanchet Architecture – OMA
Photography credits : Antoine Cardi
These four squares surrounding the parcel open either on a park, a basin, a strategic axis or a logistical interface. They interrupt the existing alignment along the basin by creating a new public square to meet the future bridge. It is in this ambulatory break, along the wharf, that the ground floor will open: a crossing hall that will connect the park with the pedestrian space along the basin.
It is a legible and recognizable project, thought as an urban forum, with a very open and bright building. A single facade surrounds the perimeter of the building, revealing a horizontal fault completely transparent and free of any structure: a suspended place in which unfolds the space of reading and public consultation. The reading area of the library becomes a “bel- vedere” on the city. The game sought between the full facade and the void of the library thus expresses very clearly the organization of the building.
Side plan, the building will draw a cross of St. Andrew, formed by the intersection of two elongated volumes of a height of 18 meters. “The intersection of these two axes will create a confluence space for both readers and disciplines,” comments Clément Blanchet. The four “Science and Technology”, “Literature”, “Humanities” and “Arts” poles will be housed at the four ends of the building. Each of them will move towards a cardinal point of the city, iden- tifiable with its historical monument: to the north, the Abbaye-aux-Dames; to the east, the Abbaye-aux-Hommes; to the south, the railway station and to the west, an urban area in the making. Natural lighting will be favored by the drilling of large windows, fully glazed.
