The Path: Sustainable Library Architecture as a Journey of Knowledge

The Path, also described as the Book of Life, answers these questions through a deeply human interpretation of sustainable library architecture. Designed by Elizaveta Kumykova, the project received recognition as a Runner-up entry of BookMark 2020.

Rather than treating the library as a static repository, the proposal imagines it as a sequence of experiences. Visitors move through interconnected rooms, curved passageways, gardens and reading spaces that symbolise different stages of intellectual and emotional development. Every part of the building contributes to a larger journey, transforming reading into an encounter with place, culture and oneself.

A Library Conceived as a Personal Path

The central idea behind The Path is that learning does not occur in a single moment or room. It develops gradually as people encounter new ideas, exchange experiences and reconsider their understanding of the world.

This concept shapes the entire architectural composition. A curved corridor connects a series of spaces, allowing visitors to move naturally from one atmosphere to another. Some rooms encourage communication and group activity, while others create conditions for silence, concentration and contemplation.

The route is not entirely predictable. Like the streets of an old city, it includes moments of openness, compression, movement and pause. Visitors may enter a busy social area, discover an intimate reading room or arrive at a quiet dead end intended for reflection.

This spatial diversity gives the project its emotional character. The library becomes a metaphor for life itself, where every turn can introduce a new perspective.

Sustainable Library Architecture Rooted in the Landscape

The exterior is defined by low, rounded volumes that appear to emerge from the surrounding vegetation. Their horizontal proportions avoid competing with the existing residential context, allowing the building to remain visually quiet and closely connected to the landscape.

The primary walls are formed from rammed earth, producing a layered surface that reveals the process of construction. These horizontal strata give the building a geological quality, as though the walls have been shaped gradually by time.

Rammed earth also supports the project’s approach to sustainable library architecture. Instead of relying on an excessively technological expression, the design prioritises durable natural materials, compact construction and environmental integration.

The material palette creates continuity between interior and exterior spaces. Earth-toned walls, stone paths, planted courtyards and shaded gardens establish a calm atmosphere before visitors even enter the library.

In the visualisations, the architecture remains partially concealed by trees and tall grass. The building does not appear as an isolated object placed within nature. It becomes part of the site’s ecological and sensory character.

Natural Light as an Architectural Guide

Light plays an important role throughout the project. Roof openings and structural beams introduce controlled daylight into the interiors, illuminating bookshelves, circulation routes and enclosed gardens.

The light is soft rather than theatrical. It moves across the textured earth walls and helps visitors understand the form of each room. As daylight changes, the interiors acquire different moods, reinforcing the idea that the library is a living environment rather than a fixed container.

In the reading spaces, illuminated shelves follow the curvature of the walls. Books appear to form continuous bands around the visitor, producing an immersive environment where architecture and knowledge become inseparable.

A small internal garden introduces another kind of pause. Light enters from above and reaches plants, stones and textured surfaces below. The space offers a moment of stillness between more active areas of the programme.

This careful use of natural illumination strengthens the project’s environmental strategy while supporting concentration, orientation and emotional comfort.

Girona Translated into Architecture

The internal spaces are inspired by significant places and experiences found across Girona. Instead of reproducing these locations literally, the design translates their spatial qualities into different library functions.

The main exhibition and meeting area refers to Plaça de la Independència, creating a clear civic space where people can gather.

The narrow streets of Girona’s old town inspire curved galleries containing books and knowledge. These spaces encourage exploration and recreate the sense of moving through a dense historic fabric.

The Eiffel Bridge informs a technologically equipped coworking area, connecting the city’s architectural heritage with contemporary forms of work.

The colourful Cases de l’Onyar influence the children’s room, creating a bright and playful environment for learning and reading.

The monumental staircase of Girona Cathedral is reinterpreted as a lecture hall. Its stepped arrangement gives people a place to sit together, exchange information and participate in public discussions.

The Arab Baths inspire quiet reading rooms designed for relaxation, silence and contemplation.

Girona’s annual flower festival appears through outdoor galleries containing plants and trees, while the dead ends found within the city’s street network become small rooms for rethinking life.

Through these references, the project develops a distinct local identity. The library could respond to universal social needs, but its atmosphere remains connected to Girona’s history, culture and urban form.

A Community Library for Every Generation

The Path presents the library as a social institution open to visitors of different ages, professions, abilities and backgrounds.

A children’s area allows younger users to play, read and learn in a safe environment. Nearby spaces enable parents to remain in the library without being separated from their children.

The lecture hall provides an informal setting for presentations, conversations and shared learning. Coworking areas bring together students, professionals and people using digital technology for work. Exhibition spaces introduce art and cultural programming, extending the library’s purpose beyond reading.

Quiet rooms serve visitors seeking privacy, while open spaces support meetings and spontaneous interaction. This balance between social and individual activities allows the building to accommodate different personalities and ways of learning.

The result is a model of community library design in which books remain essential, but they are part of a wider network of educational and civic experiences.

Inclusive Architecture Without Barriers

Accessibility is integrated into the fundamental planning of the building.

The main library is organised on a single level, eliminating the need for stairs between major public functions. Passageways are sufficiently wide for comfortable movement, and the continuous spatial arrangement reduces unnecessary physical barriers.

The absence of dramatic level changes also makes the building easier to understand. Visitors can move between rooms without depending on complex vertical circulation or restrictive routes.

Each space has a distinct function and atmosphere, but all areas belong to the same connected architectural system. Children, adults, elderly visitors and people with disabilities can therefore experience the building through the same shared path.

This approach demonstrates that inclusive architecture does not need to appear institutional. Accessibility can become part of a fluid and expressive design language.

A Distributed Network of Library Modules

The project extends beyond its principal building through a network of smaller library modules positioned across the city.

These compact structures can be installed in parks, public squares, residential neighbourhoods and other available urban spaces. Each module contains a wall and integrated bookshelves, following the physical language of the main building.

The distributed system brings books closer to residents who may not regularly visit a central library. It also encourages informal exchanges between neighbours, allowing books to circulate through local communities with fewer administrative barriers.

The main building serves as the cultural and social centre of the network, while the smaller modules create accessible points of contact throughout Girona.

This strategy makes the proposal adaptable and repeatable. Although the architectural identity emerges from a specific place, its combination of a central community facility and decentralised reading spaces could be applied within other cities.

Bookshelves as Spatial Infrastructure

Inside the main building, bookshelves are not treated as freestanding furniture added after the architecture has been completed. They are integrated directly into the curved walls and circulation system.

Their continuous form guides visitors while defining the character of each room. The shelves create enclosure without making the interiors feel rigid or repetitive.

Artificial lighting is incorporated beneath the shelving surfaces, highlighting books and supporting comfortable browsing. Combined with daylight from above, this produces a layered lighting environment that remains functional while reinforcing the project’s contemplative atmosphere.

The curved shelves also soften the relationship between circulation and occupation. A corridor can gradually become a reading area, an exhibition route or a place to stop and observe.

This integration of storage, movement and experience is central to the project’s vision of sustainable library architecture.

A Place for Social and Emotional Restoration

The Path recognises that personal development involves more than collecting information. It also requires rest, reflection, conversation and emotional recovery.

Urban life can create exhaustion through speed, noise and continuous activity. The library responds by offering spaces where visitors can slow down and temporarily disconnect from these pressures.

Gardens, filtered light, natural materials and quiet rooms create an atmosphere of psychological comfort. More active spaces provide opportunities to meet people, share knowledge and participate in community life.

Visitors can therefore choose how they engage with the building. One person may come to work, another to read, another to attend an exhibition and another simply to find a peaceful place.

The architecture does not prescribe a single experience. It provides a sequence of possibilities that visitors can interpret according to their own needs.

The Library as a Civic Landmark

Although the building remains low and integrated with the landscape, its public importance is substantial.

The project combines the functions of a library, exhibition venue, lecture space, community centre, coworking facility and urban garden. During warmer periods, activities can extend outdoors into surrounding green spaces. During colder or rainy conditions, the interior offers a protected setting for meetings and cultural programmes.

This flexibility allows the library to contribute continuously to the social life of Girona.

Its architectural identity could also attract visitors beyond the immediate neighbourhood. The rammed-earth walls, curved organisation and interpretation of local landmarks transform the building into a cultural destination without relying on monumental scale.

It becomes a landmark through meaning and public use rather than height or visual dominance.

The Path as a Book of Life

The Path ultimately proposes a library that stores more than written knowledge. It holds experiences, conversations, memories and moments of personal discovery.

Its curved rooms represent different emotional and intellectual states. Its materials connect visitors to the earth. Its gardens create places of pause. Its distributed modules extend knowledge into neighbourhoods, while its inclusive planning ensures that the journey remains open to everyone.

Through this approach, Elizaveta Kumykova redefines the library as an active instrument of social and individual development.

As a Runner-up entry of BookMark 2020, The Path demonstrates how sustainable library architecture can unite environmental responsibility, local identity, universal accessibility and community participation.

The proposal does not ask visitors simply to enter, select a book and leave. It invites them to follow a path, experience different worlds and return to the city with a deeper understanding of themselves.