Alberto Campo Baeza

On 28 January 2026, architect Alberto Campo Baeza was awarded the Grand Prix Design Paris 2025 Silver Award for his work on the French Lycée Library in Madrid, in collaboration with Laps Architecture. The new library is the most unique part of the French Lycée expansion project in Madrid, the result of an international competition won in 2018.

It is a box measuring 34 x 15 x 12 metres, with exposed concrete on the outside and completely white on the inside, filled with light. The north façade is entirely glazed from top to bottom, with the glass doubling at both corners. In one of the corners, the roof is also glazed, forming a trihedron of light.

The double-height reading room space is overlooked by the other spaces that serve it through the corresponding openings. It is a boîte à lumière where, as someone pointed out, there is more light inside than outside.

See the project