The National Library of Argentina — A Premium Example of Brutalist Architecture

This article will focus on the National Library of the Argentine Republic in its most modern incarnation. The origins of the library extend back to 1810 when Buenos Aires became the capital of Argentina. The building that preceded the current one still stands on Mexico Street in the Montserrat Ward of Buenos Ares, it was this building that the literary luminary, Jorge Luis Borges, inhabited as the library’s director from 1955 through 1973. The new building was designed in 1961 by Clorindo Testa, an accomplished architect of mixed Italian / Argentine heritage [1, 2]. Testa was a member of one of the first graduating classes of the School of Architecture at the University of Buenos Ares, his first design commission coming at the age of 28 in 1951. His architectural philosophy was rooted in the work of Le Corbusier. While his design of the National Library is convincingly Brutalist, Testa also incorporated a distinctly Argentine connection to the natural world in the building. <a href="https://medium.com/@cyberbrarian/the-national-library-of-argentina-a-premium-example-of-brutalist-architecture-3814ca12892e">Click Here</a>