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opened in early 2019. Inspired by a famous French author of children’s tales, and notwithstanding a very transparent, clean aesthetic, its architects designed the building to assume its place in a city with a rich history.


T


The high-profile location was an open area to the west of the old city centre which connects it with areas of new and planned development, and overlooks the 11th century cathedral half a kilometre away. To respond to the challenge of creating a highly contemporary glass building alongside a historic location, Grenoble- based Serero Architectes proposed the


he new ‘media library’ or ‘mediatheque’ serving the 30,000 citizens of Bayeux. Normandy, was


notion of a ‘building landscape,’ whereby users could access books, multimedia and entertainment “in the middle of a garden,” with the glass edifice opening up to landscaped, usable exterior areas. The key design intervention to alleviate what would have been a very deep-planned building is a square patio courtyard cut into the centre of the building. It’s landscaped to bring natural colour as well as light in, and also provide an external relaxation and reading space. This 10 m2


area helps the


interior blend with the exterior, its glazed walls bringing light in to augment that already brightening the large open plan space from external facades. Exterior covered reading terraces to the south further help the library harness the


ADF FEBRUARY 2021


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