Salto del Roldán de Nueno Landscape Interpretation Center
Two recent works follow an architectural line that takes up the symbology of the earth as a natural element that surrounds man and makes him his own . The new library of the Marne La-Vallèe University appears as a simple clod of volcanic earth, and the Salto del Roldán Landscape Interpretation Center in Nueno, located sixteen kilometers from Huesca, emerges as an extension of the land, blending in with it .
**LA CASA DE TIERRA (Nueno, Huesca) ** The project for the center won the 2012 García Mercadal architecture award. The building, located next to the Virgen del Patrocinio hermitage, in the Sierra de Guara, has 200 square meters of pure austerity , and its function is to promote knowledge of the nature of the area through exhibitions and other activities.
The rocky and rugged geography of the environment has marked the design of the architect Sixto Marín, who worked for ten years with Rafael Moneo. The interior reproduces the simplicity of the exterior, with the resounding white enhanced by the natural light that enters through the four openings and through the skylight of the gabled roof. All the details give this building an air of a small hermitage, a place indicated for recollection . In the garden, an attempt has been made to faithfully reproduce the local ecosystem.
**A ROCK WHERE TO READ (Marne La Vallèe, Paris) ** The new Library of the Marne-la-Vallée University, located to the east of Paris, it looks like a piece of volcanic land modeled and ordered by man . The tinted concrete construction flies over an almost transparent base in which steel and glass predominate, a source of natural light, and where the main entrance, some patios and the so-called "water garden" are located.
The new Library of the Marne-la-Vallée University
The architects of the Beckmann-N'Thépé Architectes studio decided to make the library with technological and design elements that respect the environment, and for this reason they have just received the official "Haute Qualité Environnementale" certification. Not in vain, the library is within an exceptional natural area, the High House Farm, protected since the 17th century.
This quadrangular block accommodates 1,200 students, in order to facilitate the acquisition of new knowledge, research and reading. A space that could also resemble a natural safe that preserves the books to safeguard them from their danger of extinction.
The inside of the library