Staff Reporter
IT’S not a UFO but it’s certainly flying.
Dubbed the Green Spaceship, innovative design studio 3Gatti is pushing architecture to its outer limits with its galactic plans for a new municipal library in Madrid’s Villaverde district.
The group of architects, builders and designers, said it aimed to, ‘create a recognizable landmark’ for Spain’s capital.
Two floors separate the structure into a ‘noisy’ lobby area on the ground floor, and a ‘quiet’ upstairs section of study zones.
3Gatti describes the upper floor as the ‘real spaceship’ of the project, with the out-of-this world effect achieved through angular red tubing and black netting, designed to retain heat during the winter.
The design studio, based between London, Rome and Shanghai, has created a building that changes with the season. The dark structure turns green in the summer, as Virginia creeper plants are allowed to grow through the upper level, protecting those studying from sunlight.
A concrete and brick structure comprises the core of the library, while the top floor is sprayed in dark plaster, and the lower facade is all glass, helping create the stylish ‘floating’ effect.
Angular alcoves protruding from the building’s exterior, which house ‘private desks’ and ‘cozy lounge’ areas, complete the ‘spaceship’ aesthetic.
