The Library of Samarate is born in a ‘boundary area between what belongs to the built and what belongs to nature, a messy chessboard which from its historical centre comes to loose strength and matter, permeating in the flatness of the agricultural landscape. The idea of belowground allows isolation and to bring to light only the significant elements (reading room, study room, auditorium), and to conceal most of the functions that would have covered about half of the area. The underground square is a collective space, heart and social engine of the entire project. The reading room is the centre of the intellect, as in a mother’s fetus is surrounded by books, isolated in the middle of a shell of written pages, absorbed in admiration of graphemes and glyphs books communicate.