Biblioteca España: An example of Metamodern Architecture

As I am behind in my own artwork, and because of an abiding interest in all things metamodern, and specifically metamodern architecture, I publish this photograph of the Biblioteca España in Medellín, Colombia.

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The library was built as part of a library system in Medellín, designed by architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, and funded in part by the Spanish Agency for International Development and Cooperation. Ten library parks have been planned, constructed, or are under construction as part of a design program to improve education and to redevelop poor neighborhoods.

The design intentionally looks like three crystalline rock formations that seem to grow out of the escarpment on which they are placed. In this, Mazzanti reflects one of the interests of metamodern architecture, to reflect the natural. While the buildings stand bold and stark, and I might add dark against the sky, they also turn inward having only small windows placed high on their walls in order to create a definite separation from the surrounding urban neighborhood.

The architect, while creating a place where local inhabitants can come to learn, to read and grow - also removes them physically and symbolically from the urban environment that threatens to prevent learning and growth. In this, Mazzanti uses a primary metamodern notion – the recognition that hope is often unfounded, but to hope nonetheless. He creates an ideal architectural library space, but one that demonstrates its fallibility simultaneously. Irony is present, but the building oscillates back and forth from the ideal it represents – that is education and redevelopment - to the ironic knowledge that it is designed to fix something that may often be unfixable. Thus, the design is modern (idealistic) and postmodern (ironic rejection of the ideal) and metamodern (hope that the ideal may yet however remotely be achievable).



Note

* Trabajo propio, reconocimiento requerido, mantener licencia:(Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5). Citar a la Wikipedia como fuente si la imagen es utilizada en otros medios que no sean de los proyectos de Wikipedia. (Own work, required recognition, maintain license (Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5). Cite Wikipedia as a source if the image is used in other means than Wikipedia projects.)
Uploaded by Alejandro Rojas (SajoR), Wikipedia en español, 2007. Viewed 10:12 P.M., EST, Saturday, February 7, 2015