Pinocchio's Children Library

Research Project, at INESC-ID, Lisbon

Team: Sofia Feist, Francisco Bastos, Inês Pereira, António Menezes Leitão, Inês Caetano, Luís Santos

Year: 2017

Programming Languages Used: Python

Software Used: AutoCAD, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop

Designed for the Young Architects Competition, the aim of this project was to create a children’s library inspired by the fairy tale of Pinocchio. With its fluid, branching form, this project seeks to bridge both sides of the river within the intervention area and become a central hub that connects current and future surrounding areas of the Pinocchio’s Polycentric Park in Collodi.

The project includes the restoration of the old Paper Factory building, located within the intervention area, to host the new exhibition area, as well as a new extension building containing the library itself and the remaining program. Inspired by the sea creature in the Pinocchio tale, the new intervention assumes a fish-like shape, with catenary arches resembling ribs and spinelike beams as the main structural elements of the building. The entrance of the library serves then as the metaphorical mouth of the creature, leading visitors into a new world filled with potential imagination and knowledge.