WHY DO WE DO IT?
Koldo Mitxelena has become a “benchmark service” because of its role in promoting culture and reading, and in the field of literature in the Basque language. Remodelling the library will allow the existing space to be enlarged, adapting the building to new technologies and extending services; the goal is to improve the cultural offering, reach a new public and extend opening hours to include weekends.
WHAT DO WE PROPOSE?
The project is intended to meet the need to adapt the centre to the requirements of a twenty-first century cultural facility, adapting and improving it in order to retain KMK's position as a cultural reference point in Gipuzkoa. Specifically we propose:
• To improve vertical flow with a single access to all activities, thus favouring mobility from the basement to the top floor.
• The creation of an integrated arts centre, to create a more accessible, comfortable and user-friendly building.
HOW DO WE DO IT?
Improvements will be made to the existing basement layout, allowing us to house more than one exhibition and organise different activities simultaneously. The access floor will be turned into a vestibule, operating as a central hub for all activities and services, with a central area and information desk. This floor will house the activities and services with the highest footfall such as:
• Remodelled activities room, adapted to suit all audiences
• Newspaper and periodicals room
• Area for promoting reading among children
• Rest area / café catering to all visitors.
Floor 1, the central part of the library's services, will contain two large spaces. A large reading room, which will occupy all the former rooms on the main facade and will offer a working environment and also an exhibition space for themed document collections. In addition, a large space linking the 3 courtyards of the building, enabling complete visibility, which will house the fiction collection (novels, etc.) in an informal environment to facilitate both lending and reading. The information service will be situated in the centre of this floor.
The second floor will be used for consulting heritage and special collections, with an increase in the currently available space and a working area for individual researchers. This floor will contain part of the themed collections for home loans and a new second space, containing the information service and 5 rooms designed for group work and quiet rooms.
On the 3rd floor, flow and access to the multi-purpose hall will be improved, as will the connections to the centre's other activities and spaces. The new vestibule will be more spacious, facilitating visitor flow and use.
WHAT CAN IT OFFER US?
Koldo Mitxelena Kulturgunea will have an extra 600 square metres of public space and will be capable of catering to 60% more users than previously. This will allow us to advance towards a new more sustainable, participative and transformative cultural model by extending the space available to people, especially young people, both in the creation spaces and in the public spaces.