Location
Hill town square
Year
2023
Client
Municipality of the hill town
Scope
Architecture, interiors, furniture
Duration
30 months
Site
Gap in the medieval town wall
A reading room carved into the town wall, with one long window toward the valley.
A public reading room built into the old town wall. Thick stone, deep reveals and one long window toward the valley.
The library occupies a gap in the medieval wall that had stood empty for a century. We rebuilt the wall in its original stone and hollowed it into reading alcoves, each lit from above. A single long window frames the valley at the eye level of a seated reader.
Aa
The long reading gallery
01
Colonnade along the town wall
02
A round rooflight above the alcoves
03
From brief to building.
The question we were asked, how we answered it, and what changed once people moved in.
01
The challenge
A protected heritage site, a modest public budget, and a town that wanted a library people would use every day, not only a building to admire.
02
Our approach
We rebuilt the missing stretch of wall in reclaimed stone and hollowed it into thirty reading alcoves. Rooflights bring even north light onto every desk, and one long window at seated eye level gives the valley back to the town.
03
The outcome
Visitor numbers tripled in the first year. The library now hosts evening lectures, homework clubs and, when it rains, the weekly market.
More visitors in the first year
Reading alcoves in the wall
Window toward the valley
A wall you can read in.
The section cuts through the rebuilt wall: alcoves on the town side, a reading hall at its centre and one long window toward the valley.
The vaulted main hall
Old stone, new use.
Reclaimed and local materials that sit naturally inside a protected wall.
“People come for the books and stay for the window. It has become the living room of the town.”
Elena Rossi, town librarian
Architecture
ARCHEA
Interior design
Ines Albrecht
Structure
Nordic Engineering
Landscape
Atelier Verde
Builder
Kamen Construction
Photography
Studio Lumen
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The Terraced Villa
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