Knowledge is like a tree: it needs well- branched roots in the soil of past knowledge; a sturdy trunk capable of elevating it above the everyday and the chronicle; and it needs a thick foliage made up of scholars who process knowledge, make it flourish and can, through it, culturally regenerate the life of society.

This is how this library wants to be: The automatic warehouse for 2.5 million books in the underground to represent the roots of knowledge; the library which emerges from the ground, rising above the street level with a series of trunks making it permeable to urban space where are anchored those functions of the library more aimed to cultural dissemination; and finally the upper part of the departments, the place of elaboration, synthesis,study, a space away from the noise of the street, where is easier to focus. This symbolic parallelism intends to give an interpretative and iconic key to the typology that is intended to be proposed for the new BEIC, a library for those who read books but also for those who write them or for those who intend to elaborate what they read, to ensure that intellectual growth and culture of man and citizen is to be understood as part of the growth process that unites all living phenomena in nature. The library as a place of culture therefore, where books, together with all the other more recent forms of transmission of knowledge, constitute the intellectual nourishment necessary for the growth of the city’s cultural and civic life.



Urban design, Architecture, Interior design: JDP ARCHITECTS (Joseph Di Pasquale, Diana Ranghetti, Paolo Labbadini, Giulia Chiatante)

Engeenering: E.T.S. S.p.A. Engineering and Technical Services

Landscape design: 16 BIS STUDIO (Giulia Pannella, Lapo Soldano)

Space planning, interior design: CO+E ARCHITECTURES & DESIGNERS (Mengzhen Han, Xiaomin Du, Donghai Sun, Yining Sun, Xue Zhao, Jun Ma)

Interior Design: Riccardo Zucco

Digital interface: WOA Creative Company (Davide Carioni, Giuliana Pajola) - OTLN Outline Studio Milano (Alessio Valente, Matteo Zucchetti)

Logistic and data consulting: STUDIO FARRI (Roberto Farri, Andrea Farri)

Designer artist: Valentin Carp