The Public State Library of Las Palmas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Libraries and archives · Year: 1997-2001 · Authors: Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar, Leopoldo Tabares de Nava

This is a state library under local government control. Services include loaning and consultation of books, free Wi-Fi connection to the Internet, as well as organizing many cultural activities.

The library, called the Biblioteca Pública del Estado (1997-2001) in Spanish, is the work of Juan Manuel Palerm Salazar and Leopoldo Tabares de Nava in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and was built along the sea front at Avenida Marítima, next to San Telmo Park. The library is in an emblematic building, in which the architects built on an irregularly shaped plot, designing a fortification type structure in keeping with the area's local history, where the city's former quay once stood. The complex is laid out in a combination of diversely shaped buildings identified by a formal diversity and by the nature and use of the materials. A blind plinth covered with quarry stone was used as the base for a structure containing two underground floors. These hold up the two upper floors in an "L" shape, set out over open spaces with glass and metal front enclosures. The combination of the base materials of wood and glass, contrasting with the red and white marble sheets, give a bright, light and warming appearance to the building which is visible from the outside. 

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