A library of 14000m ² on the site of “prémontrés” in the center of Liege (Belgium)

Personal commitment:
I don’t believe in architecture which hides, which is afraid of modifying, which is ashamed to build. I believe in the polemical and speculative architecture which strikes, resists and pushes aside.

Urban resolution:
To place in edge of Meuse, the site is surrounded with highways. This hybrid island is characterized by lifeless, uninhabited, flat and windy spaces. The Master-plan realizes one tabula rasa of the existing context. To do it, it modifies the road network and creates a pedestrian space in continuity with the old city. The connection is created by an esplanade where there are some Restaurant, bar,...

Teratology:
Such an urban monster which works its way through a heterogeneous context, the library stretches of the Meuse in the building of Chiroux. Of an incredible violence, the infrastructure flies over the esplanade with its heavy and rough mass. This building is transformed into a machine for the city; it re-qualifies, revitalizes and cleans up.

This provocative architecture recreates urban space, connections, life.

A last stop(ruling):
The temperature rises, the wind stops blowing, of the library brings out the readers who hurry to find the last available seats outside on the esplanade which is overpopulated on this Friday after noon …