The Barcelona City Council held a Contest of Ideas to transform the building of the “Borsí” into a library and equipment center for neighborhood uses. 

The Borsí was built between 1881 and 1883 by the architect Tiberi Sabater, as the headquarters of the Casino Mercantil, Barcelona’s private stock exchange. In a neoclassical style, the building is located in the Verónica Square, upon the Roman wall of the 3rd century. Currently, it is closed and abandoned.

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The project proposes to reconfigure the building’s entrance such that the existing side passage, Baixada de l’Ecce Homo, becomes the primary point of access. This would allow for the required objectives to be achieved:

- Ensure accessibility through the main entrance, without the need to incorporate ramps or platforms.

- Promote the visibility of the rampart from both the inside and outside.

- Generate a ripple effect of recovery and regeneration throughout the neighborhood, specifically for the passage, which is currently very deteriorated

The building is organized as follows. The most open and noisy rooms (welcome area, children’s library and bar/canteen) are on the ground floor. The library itself is unveiled on the first floor. Lastly, the neighborhood spaces are down in the basement and up on the roof, with a secondary independent access point, which allows for use outside of library hours.