The MEM has risen in the historic Stampace district, in the space that was from 1923 for 28 years the scene of Cagliari’s exploits and then from the 1950s the site of the Civic Market. The project involved the creation of a facility of supra-local significance: the Mediterranean Media Library. The courtyard space, a geometric garden consisting of two large pools of earth and orange trees whose edges serve as seats, is the heart of the system. The transparent glass facades show the functions housed inside, the places of study, cultural enjoyment. The elongated plan form is balanced by the deformation of the facades that widen in the median part to mark the centrality of the main entrances to the MEM. Placed on the head towards Pula Street and the city center, the square turns into a wide, slightly sloping plane that connects it with the MEM entrance. A system of walls and stairs laterally connects the different elevations, also allowing accessibility from the sides of the square. The MEM is an innovative cultural hub with reception, exhibition and lending areas, commercial spaces, training area, photography laboratory, convention and screening area, and distribution spaces that, with the concurrence of a plurality of subjects, represents a point of reference and comparison for a vast and heterogeneous public. It houses the headquarters of the Historical Archives and the Central General Library and Sardinian Studies, and gives rise to a completely renovated library and historical archives service responding to the richness and importance of the holdings, the needs of study and research, and the task of spreading awareness of the preservation of historical memory and promoting the use of the archives.
