Library for the Chamber of Commerce of Genoa

The new library of the Chamber of Commerce of Genova is located within the palace Tobias Pallavicini, added to the system of buildings for culture of Strada Nuova (including museums of Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso, and the Town Hall at Palazzo Tursi). To insert the new spaces in the complex program of events that develops within this system, it is necessary that the new library appears as a welcoming, accessible, public place. For this reason, the new library will appear with evidence, making clear its urban role, even within the existing building. The new road system seems to suggest an intervention strategy, providing exemplary interventions, that can guide our proposal for the new library. Immediately after the war, in fact, in the face of significant destruction caused by the bombing, Franco Albini and Franca Helg, involved in the museums of Palazzo Bianco and Palazzo Rosso, becoming mediators between the public and the historical buildings. Albini and Helg not intervene on the spaces, simply disseminate them to signs and objects that suggest possible uses, emphasizing spatial relationships, thus defining a new set of possible relationships.We propose to remove the slab that covers the central hall of the underground level and is the current floor of the courtyard. Removed it, it shows the possibility of using the central hall of the lower level as open-air room (the courtyard is in fact already covered), naturally lighted from above, and directly accessible from the the small Piazza del Ferro. The room is so occupied by a large square room, entirely covered with books. The new room of books establishes a relationship with the European large lecture theaters. Beyond its relatively small size (a cube of side 7.50 m), the room of the books gives to the collection of the library of the Chamber of Commerce, a role explicitly monumental, suitable for urban system in which it fits into. From the upper portion, coming from Strada Nuova (now via Garibaldi), you can enter the building, walk across the room "of Bergamasco," and look out over the room of books. In a surprising reversal, a chasm of books opens under the courtyard. The backyard is literally based on the collection of books of the Chamber of Commerce. Text by Baukuh and Valter Scelsi