The Lobby as Design Challange for the MeLa-project

One of the main purposes of museum archives and libraries is to make the knowledge contained in their documentary collections available to the public. For this transmission to be e‚ective, it must take place in an appropriate environment, its design going beyond sites traditionally devoted to document consultation and exhibition. Accordingly, it is important to consider the role that the architecture of such sites and their visibility from the exterior play in leading the public to them, and in users’ sensory and cognitive experience of them. The objective of the call for proposals, launched as part of the MeLa Project and aimed at students of design and architecture, is to find creative solutions for and reflect on this concern, taking the lobby of the MACBA Study Center as a case in point. This book contains the projects that best respond to the desire to promote documentary heritage and provide a flexible, multi-purpose space that facilitates interaction with the public.