The privileged location of Nerja’s New Library represents not only the boundary between the historical and the contemporary city, but also between the land and the sea, between popular and technological culture, between the traditional and the modern, between the domestic and the urban.

The motto BOCANÁ represents the values of the new library in its double meaning:

1) “Paso estrecho de mar que sirve de entrada a una bahía o fondeadero.” – Meaning a narrow sea passage that serves as an entrance to a bay or anchorage.

An «urban BOCANA» to which we access through a “Zaguan” (exterior hallway), not only to the library itself, but to culture, technology, tradition, and the blue landscape of the sea and the sky of the Axarquia coast. The library is configured as an extension of the street and public spaces, and its ground floor becomes one more, through its diaphanous layout and entrance hall extending inside the traditional floor treatment of the small streets of Nerja.

2) «Una bocaná de aire fresco» – meaning a breath of fresh air. The library is understood as a new urban landmark where the inhabitants can meet and exchange culture, in a space designed from sustainability, for habitability and usability adapted to the present, with techniques that learn from tradition, but are executed and adapted to the technologies of today looking towards the future.

The proposal is conceived as an innovative space that is at the same time respectful of local tradition and its contexts. The image of the library is and will be shaped over time as a constructive consequence of the proposed solar control strategies; through the reinterpretation and adaptation of 3 traditional elements distinctive of the local architecture: the entrance hall, the lattices and the exterior shutters.