Medellín: Parque Biblioteca España and a Project for Inclusion

Medellín, Colombia has been undergoing a process of social integration as a part of the national plan which is trying to make Colombia a safer country, free from the fears of the 20th century, when drug dealers were almost running a parallel government. The Parque Biblioteca España, designed by Colombian architect Giancarlo Mazzanti, is a part of this reinvention of the city, which started as a consequence of new social plans in the 1990s.

Where and Why?

Parque Biblioteca España is located in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of the city: Santo Domingo Savio. Colombia’s social planning is purposefully trying to include areas which used to be isolated from the city, enclosed within themselves as a consequence of distance, lack of services and poor transport systems. When he presented his project, Mazzanti focused on giving the neighbourhood a reason to finally be proud of itself, thus boosting the image that the citizens in that area have of themselves. This explains the building’s shape and grandness.
With a total cost of around $4 million, Parque Biblioteca España has served as a library, auditorium classroom, administration area and a meeting point for the people living there since 2007. Made up of narrow winding streets which are a direct consequence of the area’s mountainous geography, neighbours in Santo Domingo Savio did not have a proper meeting area, which is now being provided by the new building.

Isolation Concept

Another relationship between the building’s architecture and the environment that surrounds it is the former’s ability to isolate those within its walls. The Parque Biblioteca España has very few windows, which are small and randomly distributed. Light gets into the building mainly through the roof instead. This way, people inside the building do not have a view of the poor surroundings, but have a view of the valley. The building ends up looking inwards, where educational and cultural activities are taking place rather than outwards, plagued with poverty and insecurity.
The construction of Parque Biblioteca España is an indirect way in which to tell those long ignored classes living in the area that they are important and taken into account when planning the future of the nation. For a place that used to be known as the Murder Capital of the World, the inclusive measures seem to be doing the trick.