Spanish Architects Reuse Railway Sleepers to Build a Sculptural Library Extension

Posted. 1st November 2016

The Azkoitia station extension is an irregularly-shaped box clad in wooden railway sleepers that reference the old station’s history. Estudio Beldarrain designed the structure to accommodate three large rooms which will house part of the existing library and give the project a sense of place.

The architects covered the extension in wooden railway sleepers as if the tracks that once ran near the station were dismantled and stacked to create a new piece of architecture. Another reason behind the choice of cladding is the fact that, after the railway disappeared, the remaining building felt oddly out of place. By creating a visual connection to its past, the architect managed to root the location into its context and relate the library with the Train’s Boulevard.
Irregular, sculptural volume of the structure houses the extension of the library, vertical communication, access, service premises and terraces overlooking the boulevard. “The project is generated from the inside to the outside taking advantage of the flexibility that the during design process allows the irregular geometries,” said the architects.

+ Estudio Beldarrain

Via Archdaily

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