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UPON VISITING THE RAMPARTS of the medieval castle of Qait Bey, which was built on the remaining foundations of the ancient lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, nobody will miss the magnificent view of the oval-shaped Eastern Harbor and the city skyline.
The buildings surrounding the harbor form a solid wall of almost uniform height, thus creating a very strong feeling of space and containment. The Eastern Harbor bay, nowadays used for fishing and sports, has revealed numerous submerged archeological finds dating from the Ptolemeic Period, and provides one of the strongest spatial experiences in the city.
Directly across from the castle, at the opposite side of the bay, the skyline opens to give way to a huge cylindrical shape set back from the actual bay. One doubts whether this gray oval disk, which is divided into a series of smaller modular elements, has stood there from antiquity, or has "just arrived." The new library of Alexandria, viewed from the castle, feels familiar and alien, ancient and contemporary, glittering and shining like a polished mirror in the morning, gray and huge like Moby-Dick in the afternoon lights timeless structure.
The creation of a building that conveys this sense of timelessness was one of the main objectives five young architects set out to achieve, when we gathered in Los Angeles in May 1989 to prepare our entry for the international architectural competition. Two of us had previously been associated under the Norwegian firm of Snohetta, whose name was used for the competition and became the name of our company, two had previously formed ties by studying and working together in Graz, Austria, and the five members comprised three nationalities; Norwegian, Austrian, and American. This variety of experience and cultural background, as well as the familiarity of the team members, allowed us to draw from a multitude of images and inspirations for the design of the building. Our design was awarded the First Prize among 526 participants. Now, 12 years later, the library building is nearing its completion and the thoughts and ideas created during the competition period are put to a test.
It was clear from the beginning of the design process that the new library-called Bibliotheca Alexandrina to recall...