Library Buildings around the World

China
Amateur Architecture Studio, Hangzhou, Zhejiang – China
http://www.chinese-architects.com/en/amateur/en
Libraries:
Wenzheng College, Suzhou University Library, Suzhou – China 2000
Architects: WANG Shu, LU Wenyu, TONG Ming
Company of Scheme Design: “Amateur” Architecture Studio
Cooperation Design Institute: Architecture and Planning Institute Suzhou Construction Group
Construction Period: 3/1999 – 9/2000
Location: Yuexi Wuxian, Suzhou
Site Area: About 4.000 m2
Total Floor Area: About 9.000 m2
Structure Type: Reinforced Concrete Framework
Awards:
Architecture Art Award China 2003
In designing the library, my purpose was to make people aware that they live between mountains and water, which is the garden
style of Suzhou. Backed by a mountain full of bamboo in the north and facing a lake that used to be a disposed brickfield in the
south, the slope site descends southward with a difference of four meter in the level. According to the principles of gardening,
buildings between mountain and water should not be prominent. So nearly half of the library is underground. The three-storey
building actually shows only two-storey to the entrance-side. The rectangle main body is floating over the water, facing south, the
dominant direction of the winds in summer. From north to south, and also from mountain to water, four separate pavilions are
inserted into the complex. It is the soul of the traditional Chinese garden to change scale from one to another. For a literati, the small
houses are much more important. The pavilion-like building in the water, – the poetry and philosophy reading room of the library -,
is from the Chinese literati point of view, in a position where man and nature are balanced. (Amateur)
AZL Atelier Zhanlei, Nanjing, Hangzhou – China
http://www.azlarchitects.com
Libraries:
Library Xianlin Campus – NJU Nanjing University, Nanjing – China 2010
The library in Xianlin campus of NUPT was started constructing in 2007, and was completed in May, 2010, with a building area of
about 33,018 square meters, a collection of 684,437 books, 4,645 seats for its readers, and modern service facilities such as newspaper
reading machines, guidance stations, automatic borrowing-returning machines, separate reading rooms for VIPs, etc.. The new
library employs the modern management mode of "the Great Circulation" integrating storing, borrowing and reading with a single
entry exit. Readers, in and out with their bags, enjoys great freedom here. The library is truly a spiritual paradise of all the readers.
(http://www.njupt.edu.cn/s/2/t/2/33/7d/info13181.htm)
CAG – China Architecture Design & Research Group, Beijing – China
http://en.cadreg.com
Libraries:
Library of Shandong University of Technology, Jinan – China 2005
ECADI – East China Architectural Design, Shanghai – China
http://www.ecadi.com
Libraries:
Tianijn TEDA Library, Tianjin – China 2003
Cooperative Designer: California Civil Design Group
http://www.pfeifer.de
The TEDA library is situated at the heartland of the administrative sector of Tianjin Economic and Technical Development Zone,
and the library is to be constructed with a 45°bearing as is planned in the architectural program to make this building the most
stirring musical note in the whole city. The modeling of this library is of individuality and identifiability, with the giant and rhythmic
facade of chancery as the background. The concise and elegant oval modeling of the library and its transparent reading rooms
reflect the time spirit of this building. The indoor space of the library is characterized by openness, and the up-to-date design theory
of flexible and nonflexible space is adopted. Blocks and tubes of different shapes are provided in vitreous bodies according to their
functions, and the effects of space circulation and transformation can be achieved through the combination, inter-penetration and
variation of all the elements. (ECADI)
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