Virgilio Barco Public Library is a

Public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

in the western sector of

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...

, Colombia, is part of

BibloRed BibloRed is the District network of Public Libraries and Alternative Reading Spaces of Bogotá, Colombia. It is a system that seeks to provide citizens with the opportunities to engage with books, reading, writing, orality, culture, research, scie ...

, the District's Public Library Network. The building was designed by architect

Rogelio Salmona Rogelio Salmona (April 28, 1929 – October 3, 2007) was a French Colombian architect. He was noted for his extensive use of red brick in his buildings and for using natural shapes like spirals, radial geometry and curves in his designs. Duri ...

, and forms part of the

Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

. Its inauguration took place on December 21, 2001, named after former President

Virgilio Barco Vargas Virgilio Barco Vargas (17 September 1921 – 20 May 1997) was a Colombian politician and civil engineer who served as the 27th President of Colombia serving from 7 August 1986 to 7 August 1990. Early life Barco was born in Cúcuta in the No ...

. The design of the building is notable for its emphasis of

water management Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificia ...

, with water pools on the outside. The library and its surrounding park together form one of seven sites which make up the serial property "The architectural legacy of Rogelio Salmona: an ethical, political, social and poetic manifesto." Colombia's permanent delegation to UNESCO submitted the site to the country's Tentative List for the World Heritage List in 2022.

Architecture

The library building was designed by

, also known for the Torres del Parque, the National Archive building,

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian writer and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th centur ...

's house in Cartagena, the

National University A national university is mainly a university created or managed by a government, but which may also at the same time operate autonomously without direct control by the state. In the United States, the term "national university" connotes the highe ...

's Postgraduate Building in Social Sciences, among others. For the construction of the library, Salmona took into account its interrelation with the public space, forming a series of geographical, landscape, historical, and experiential values.

References

{{Authority control Libraries in Bogotá Public libraries