Revise: Revising Labrouste in the Digital Age (Alberto Kalach)

Alberto Kalach, Taller de Arquitectura X Housing nearly 600,000 volumes, the 2006 Biblioteca Vasconcelos in Mexico City by Taller de Arquitectura X (TAX) is the largest library in Latin America. In BOMB, TAX Principal Alberto Kalach notes that the design, which combines cantilevered levels of shelves with a long gallery, allows visitors to “see all the books, all the knowledge simultaneously," and to draw connections to the local life of the capital. Built on a once-barren strip of land, the library is wrapped by a botanical garden, where "[t]he classification of plants and the classification of books [can] be congruent.” Kalach presents this library within the legacy of Henri Labrouste in a Keynote Address for the two-day GSAPP/MoMA symposium Read: Revisiting Labrouste in the Digital Age. In conjunction with Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light, on display March 3–June 24 at MoMA Keynote address is free and open to the public http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/events/17136 http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1319