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Edificio de la Biblioteca Nacional de París

National Library of Paris / Biblioteca Nacional de Paris

  • 1853 - 1869
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  • LABROUSTE, Pierre François Henri
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  • París
  • Francia
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Representative classicism, monumentality and the use of new materials (iron, gas light, electricity, concrete and steel…) are the essential characteristics of the new libraries that were built in the 19th century.


Perhaps the architect who most faithfully reproduced the new style of nineteenth-century libraries is Pierre François Henri Labrouste, especially highlighting his two works carried out in Paris, the Library of Saint Genevieve (1843-1850) and the National Library (1853-1868). In relation to the latter we can highlight his structural rationalism.


FRAMPTON K., Critical history of Modern Architecture. Edit. G.Gili. Barcelona, 1987.


“Cultural transformations: neoclassical architecture, 1750-1900."


p.12-19. "This complex, inserted in the courtyard of the Mazarin Palace, consists of a reading room (of a representative nature) covered by an iron and glass roof, supported by 16 cast iron columns, and a multi-story book warehouse built with pieces wrought iron and cast iron. Abandoned even the last trace of historicism, Labrouste designed this last space as a cage illuminated from above, in which light filters downwards through the iron platforms from the roof to the lower floor."


As James Cambell comments in his book on the world's libraries:: “The warehouse shelves, distributed over four floors, are self-supporting. Each floor is only two meters high, so librarians can remove the volumes without the help of ladders. The floors made of iron grating allowed light from the roof skylights to filter through them. The deposit is visible from the reading room, through a huge glass window located behind the librarians' table, which is where the lecturers request the books they need."


 

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