San Juan de Capistrano Library

A local ordinance in San Juan de Capistrano has set the guidelines for the town's architecture which require that it follow the indigenous Spanish mission style. For the library project, this has prompted an investigation of the properties of this style as a generic type. Of specific interest are the quality and variety of light in this architecture, as it was this concern which transformed the type from its Reinassence beginnings. Treatment of light is also thought to be particularly appropriate in the design of a library. Una ordenanza local en San Juan de Capistrano ha establecido las pautas para la arquitectura de la ciudad que requieren que siga el estilo de la misión indígena española. Para el proyecto de la biblioteca, esto ha llevado a una investigación de las propiedades de este estilo como un tipo genérico. De particular interés son la calidad y la variedad de luz en esta arquitectura, ya que fue esta preocupación la que transformó el tipo desde sus inicios en el Renacimiento. El tratamiento de la luz también se considera particularmente apropiado en el diseño de una biblioteca. This theme is understood in the building through the use of light monitors, clerestories, and walls as filters of light. The organization of the building around a courtyard is not only appropriate because it is generic to the type but also because it allows the filtering of light from the openness at the center, to the screen of its peristyle and finally to the rooms behind. Furthermore, the courtyard serves as a place of repose for the pleasures of reading at the center of the building's organization. The court allows thematic subdivisions of the various primary internal uses required in the program without sacrificing an overall reading of unity. Quite generally, the adult section is located on one face of the courtyard, the children's wing on the second, the auditorium on the third, and garden gazebos on the fourth.