... A non-dogmatic rationalism, extraordinarily sensitive to the place is steeped in almost expressionist gestures, almost organic, both in the aggregation of several volumes that aluminum entering the park, both in the contrast between the sumptuous rigidity and simplicity of the volume of deposit books, with its stunning glass block front facing north, and the large window that opens up space in the reading room in the long balcony and more than in the surrounding nature. But it is also functional architecture: if you want to give to the concept of "functionalism," a more noble value that only add spaces between them, then that concept in this building achieves a high quality, Office of logic and clarity, plus a clear understanding of the ways architecture. In fact, the joint displacement that characterizes the building allows you to isolate and make legible the individual "places" of the Library, each of which takes its size and special formalities, such as the portion of the entrance, as the architectural body that contains the reading room, as the volume of the deposit of books. The same design approach is also evident in the composition of the façade, but within a coherent formal control known solutions for individual parts, each of which expresses independently of the content that stalled inside: the series of windows displayed together with the lotus of the main complaint the presence of the offices, the large window overlooking the park also points to the profane space of the reading room, the great northern wall of glass block brick formally expresses the storage of books, while the geometric north-western edge of the cylinder hidden inside the staircase connecting the floors of the warehouse. The set is solved with great formal properties: the invention combines high efficiency with its quiet honesty of the design of the fronts and the organic integration into the green. A 'coherent architecture in all its parts, whose unit is supported by the continuity of construction dictated by the use of exposed concrete, used both in internal structures, both in the construction of facades, both expressing high nell'aggetto closure of the roof, and that is partly in front facing, partly hammered.
In the text published in French magazine Vie Article Cite dell'innaugurazione 1942 at the Library and Carlo Rino Tami
write that "the concrete by the architect who has a habit of building with stone and brick a singular sense of freshness and freedom. But this freedom and this ease of construction is only apparent: this material requires great discipline on the part of the company, [...]. Cement concrete results in an aesthetic that is up to him and therefore we do not intuit that its features. And 'thanks to the integrity of its implementation and experience of its use that we can finally get the consecration of its plastic qualities [...]. "Finally
not be overlooked the defining elements of the interior of the building. As a lobby that welcomes people over the glass wall of the entrance, protected by the metal roof, as the spatial sequence that follows, the long corridor leading to the heart of the building and the joint space from which you enter the room reading, characterized by the large window at the Park Ciani and the beautiful sloping ceiling to the outside and in the end as the virtuosity of the spiral staircase that goes upstairs. Neither should we forget the furniture designed by Tami, the distribution of bank loans to the lamps placed on the reading tables.
Retrieved from text "Library Project. Space, history and functions of the Library Cantonale di Lugano ", published by The Research, Locarno 2005, p.. 69 "rationalism and expressionism in architecture Rino Tami" by Paolo Fumagalli.
