Abstract

This article presents a reflection on the relationship between a closed building in tension—a national library—and an open component that defines it—its storage rooms. The concept of a library has been transformed throughout history based on the number of books in it. New ideas of storage and new types of libraries have emerged from this: from armarium or arkon to room, and from room to building. In order to determine the type of building that the national library should mutate into in the 21st century, architecture plays an important role. To do so, the National Library of Chile is taken as a case study and compared with two world references: the National Library of France and the Library of the British Museum1 in England. In addition, three building typologies that arise from a national library are presented to account for this phenomenon.