The biblioteka alexandrina and the seaside walk

Waking up at 11 am after only two hours of sleep was the first of my achievements of the day. After the preceptive coffee under the morning sun and some little chores i went to get the "minibus" to the Biblioteka Alexandrina, by "minibus" they meant a Nissan vanette packed with 15 people (modelo la flagoneta del tintorero del poligono); but with a 15 km trip costing 10 pence is not a question to criticize the transportation means :P The central building of the modern library of Alexandria is a massive concrete truncated cone covered with stone slabs where inscriptions in all known alphabets have been carved:

The Biblioteka is just few hundred meters away from the location of the ancient library (known as the temple of the muses or Musaion), where Euclid taught his Elements, the greatest mathematical treaty in history. Thinking that all the geometry studied in the last two millenia was formally taught for the first time so close to where i was standing filled me with great emotion. I entered the library with this overwhelming feeling in me. The interior is spacious and evenly illuminated by the light entering through openings in the tilted roof. Unfortunately after 3 hours of exploring i was quite disappointed. In first place the library looks more like an attraction for tourists than a research center, and secondly, after careful study of the catalogue i realised that the collection is nowhere close to what i expected from the once greatest book repository in the world. Nevertheless i managed to find a few useful references.

Once out of the library i took the decision to walk back home along the seaside. During this 3 hours walk i would have time to discover the chaotic architectural collage that is Alexandria. An uncountable number of high rise buildings seem to compete for the little available space, almost leaning over each other (see photo).

The whole thing did not make much sense to me, one building would be of colonial style, the next one filled with references to ancient Egypt, followed by a high tech hotel; the next with references to Islamic architecture, followed by a brutalist piece from the 70´s...and the list has no end. The immense majority of such buildings would have made me cringe if in any other place, but overwhelmed by the naivety, improvisation and lack of any sort of architectural convention of this concrete labyrinth, my senses relaxed. Suddenly i found this whole chaos tremendously comic, i was standing in front of buildings and smiling, the passing by pedestrians looking at me like i was mad. And in such a good mood i discovered some of the most amazing pieces of architecture i have ever seen. I will give you some visual examples:

1- The concrete spider:

I found this structure sitting on top of twelve stories high building...there are no words, i simply could not work out what was going on in there after a while observing the "thing". Please if any of you have any idea of what on earth could be that concrete cubicle with oblique supports, please comment.

2- What could be a building by BEST architectural studio (famous American firm that design buildings that look like they are falling apart):

Observe the detail of all the upper floors perfectly finished, meanwhile the bottom ones seem to be falling apart...another architectural mystery.

3- The egg:

This is one of my favourite pieces; completely unaware and uninformed by its surroundings, it looks like a massive animal died in the middle of the city leaving its beautifully textured shell behind.

4- The melting column building:

This building seemed at first glance to be relatively normal, the front columns and the openings of the bottom floor as well as the stone slab covering seem reminiscent of some ancient temples...but what is that bent column on the left? If is not load bearing, why did they put a column at all? and if is simply aesthetic, why they did not put another of those pretty ones? It seems like i have little idea of architecture.

5- The wind cutting building:

This is the side of the building facing the sea wind, i might be conceding too much credit to the designer, but looks that the purpose of such shape is to reduce the tension in the structure...or maybe it was simply the shape of land that was left available :D

I have to say the selection of buildings to put here has been very very contested, i am so sorry that so many other outrageous buildings have been left out of this post. Maybe i will write a second part of this post to include some other pieces. As a farewell note i leave u with a lovely image of the end of my seaside walk.

Fact of the day: The graveyard of Alexander the Great is undiscovered somewhere under the city