Vasconcelos Library, 2007
Mexico City
Architect: Alberto Kalach

For Cinco de Mayo, we feature a library in Mexico City, which has drawn mixed reviews. Some have acclaimed it as one of the 21st century's most iconic buildings, while critics have likened it to a prison or a fortress for its non-human scale and use of cold materials. From the side it’s a skeleton of vertical concrete slabs and glass, and from the front it’s almost like entering a tomb.

If the building hunkers down on the outside, inside the space soars. The library’s bookshelves are cantilevered out from the sides, giving them the appearance of floating from the ceiling. Painted a military green, they are accented by greenish smoked glass floors. At the center hangs a giant whale skeleton from contemporary Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco. Natural light filters in through the floor to ceiling glass slits. An admirer, clearly not one suffering from acrophobia, has called it one of the most exhilarating interiors of the century: "Going to look for a book has never been so thrilling. Walking into the lofty hall of the Vasconcelos Library, it’s impossible not to be awed by the hanging stacks of shelves that climb either side, forming a vertiginous Blade Runner metropolis of books. This deep, multilevel canyon is crisscrossed by gantries, cantilevered staircases and projecting platforms, while reading areas enjoy natural light at the edges of the building, with views of the lush botanical gardens."

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