In Barcelona, in the Sant Martí district, there is a piece of Macondo where this afternoon the phone has not stopped ringing. Marimí Pons and her colleagues pick it up over and over again and keep the same conversation in a loop. "Congratulations!" is heard on the other side of the intercom. “Thank you, we are happy and excited”, they reply without losing their smile. It is not for less. The library where they work, the Gabriel García Márquez, has been recognized this Monday as the best in the world
The director, Neus Castellano, and the manager of Biblioteques de Barcelona, Ferran Burguillos, have delivered the good news to the entire team from Rotterdam. It is there that the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and Systematic presented the award, for which the Janez Vajkard Valvasor Krškov Public Library (Slovenia), the City of Parramatta Library (Australia) and the Shanghai Library East also competed. (China).
“We were not so clear that we were going to win. Never before has a Catalan and Spanish library been even nominated. Furthermore, if one looked at previous editions, the winners were always libraries of gigantic dimensions. It is not that the Gabriel García Márquez is small, since it has almost 4,000 m² and is the third largest in Barcelona, but one of the nominees, the one in Shanghai, with 110,000 m², is 38 times ours and, in view of what It happened in previous years, we thought that recognition was going to fall on her, although the Slovenian was our favorite. It could be said that we have changed the trend”, points out Castellano.
What then makes a public library become the best in the world? Ferran Burguillos is clear about it: “the cultural and educational impact it has on the neighbourhood. The activities that are carried out, the training and the radio project that is being worked on with schools and institutes, among other things. Every day an average of 1,100 people come and it is not by chance”.
Another aspect that has been taken into account, adds the manager of Biblioteques de Barcelona, is “the flexibility and sustainability of the building itself. The use of materials that are recyclable, the low impact on the carbon footprint, the flexibility and the design, which according to the needs allows each person to find their ideal space”.
Guillermo Sevillano has a lot to say about all this, who together with Elena Orte directs SUMA Arquitectura, the studio that won the competition in 2015 and made the library a reality. “Wood plays a very important role. It is a material that we like a lot and use in many projects. In the end it is CO₂ stored and it has many features and benefits: it breathes, it is thermal, warm and cosy”.
Sevillano explains that both she and her partner have been receiving many calls since the nomination became known. “The news of the award has caught us in France on vacation and we are celebrating it in style. Who would have told us this in a pandemic, when the structure had just been erected and all the processes stopped. She was unprotected and out in the open for a long time, but in the end everything ended up returning to normal and construction was finished. And look at us today."
Before this temple of knowledge built its foundation, librarians and architects asked themselves a basic question. What is a library nowadays? “Whether we like it or not, they are no longer exclusively a place of access to knowledge, since that need, more or less correctly, could be covered by the Internet. It is true that here you have personalized attention but we had to take into account other things that years ago we would not have even thought of. For this reason, its design and each of the spaces that were created had to allow them to also be civic and social centers of reference and sustainable climate refuges. The population evolves and, with it, the libraries. But even if they change, they are and will continue to be the palaces of the people. And this is what Gabriel García Márquez celebrates today in a big way”, concludes Sevillano.
