Library Buildings around the World

library takes form and connotation from the ancient Chinese Scripture Pavilion (cang-jing-ge), a sacred room within a temple made
to accommodate religious books. With a seven-story mass rising above a concrete pavilion, the building is monumental, rising high
within the plane of the level green around it, with colorful irregular cut-outs in the façade and a playful use of color within the cutout
areas. Inside, all book stacks are densely packed and arranged along the building perimeter, resulting in a large void at the
center. Within this void, floating spaces accommodate public functions including an index room, Internet café, and reading lounge. A
series of skylights on the roof bring in natural light. Within the dense perimeter made by books and walls, various reading areas are
carved out. (Mada)
Not all the projects have extraordinary geometries but inventiveness abounds as in the great grand staircase entrance to the Ningbo
Campus Library at Zhejiang University in Ningbo. Designed by MADA spam, which is headed by Chinese architect Ma Qinyun, and
completed in 2002, the staircase has many angled railings rather randomly spaced. "The library, elevated on a large podium, is a
nine-storey red cubic builidng, and as expected, the building as a cental voi n oli pmit. But unlike Louis Kahn's Exeter Library (New
Hampshire, USA, 1972), the central void in the Ningbo Campus Library is occupied by 'floating spaces,' such as an index room, an
internet café and a reading lounge. Despite these floating spaces, illumination from the skylights still passes through and reaches the
bottom of the void. The perimeter is solid and filled with book-stacks, and the reading areas are, naturally, 'carved' out from the
book stacks and are reflected on the building facades. In Kahn's Exeter Library, the book-stacks form one layer of the perimeter,
which is exposed through large circular openings in the void in order to 'seduce' the reader. An outer layer of the perimeter forms
the privatised reading areas. For Kahn, the void, symbolically, is about sharing, which complements the private experience of
reading and learnng. The books, in this scenario, mediate the two experiences. Quite to the contrary, the architect of the Ningbo
campus library has followed the notion of a Buddhist scripture pavilion - cangjing ge - in a Chinese temple, wherein the library is a
sacred room with permanent stacks of Buddhist scriptures. The spiritial power of the scriptures should overwhelm the reader, and
hence books are worshipped. It is unclear as to whether or not the architect wanted to make this library a sacred place in a modern
university but its scale, bright colour, podium elevation and the vast foreground lawn contrive to make it the most monumental
building on the campus." (http://www.thecityreview.com)
P & T (Palmer Turner), Hong Kong – China
http://www.p-t-group.com
Libraries:
Shunde Cultural Center Complex (Library), Shunde (Foshan) – China 2006
Client: Shunde Shi New City Development Centre, 26.200 m², RMB 137.000.000
Awards:
Design for Asia Award 2006 - Best Design from Greater China
An award-winning new cultural center complex is underway in the Shunde district in Foshan City southeast China. Commissioned
by the Shunde Shi New City Development Centre, a local government body, the complex includes a performing arts center, library,
and two museums. Shunde Cultural Centre consists of a performing art centre and a library in Phase 1 and two museums in Phase 2.
To give identify to these four buildings while appearing as a unified whole, they are layout on both sides of the new city axis and are
made into two complimentary pairs like the couplet outside traditional Chinese doors. Being in a new district developed from
farmland and almost without any site context, the fours buildings adopt a bold geometry to express the entrepreneur and daring
spirit of Shunde people, and at the same time, play great attention to practicality and attempt to design "without fat", not only to
express the pragmatic character of the people, but also to meet the tight budget of the project. The first pair of couplet formed by the
performing art centre and the library share a complementary "yin yang" massing with the oval form of the arts center fitting into
the void of the library. The performing arts center will include a 1,500-seat theater, a 500-seat oval shaped concert hall and an
ancillary music school. Through the use of an inverted "Y" shape, the back-of-house facilities and technical equipment for the
theater and concert hall can be shared. The Shunde Performing Arts Center was awarded in "the 2006 DFA Best Design from
Greater China". The jurors commented that "Shunde Performing Arts Centre puts Shunde and Foshan on the Asia cultural scene
and proves that outstanding design and a tight budget are not necessarily mutually exclusive." The adjacent Shunde Library serves
the community as a public library and also houses two major exhibition halls on its lower floors. The lobby, which is made up of
colonnades of reading booths resembling a gigantic bookcase. The theme of bamboo, the "scholar of nature" according to Chinese
ideology, is used in the design of the elevation and throughout the interiors. Reading areas are punctuated with gardens and
courtyards, and there is considerable natural sunlight throughout. The project was awarded by the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) and American Library Association (ALA) "the 2007 AIA/ALA Library Building Award". The jurors commented that "This
Chinese library achieves a subtle, poetic response to its Asian culture, reflecting a global architecture that, nonetheless, maintains a
compelling sense of place. The jury was impressed not only by its community centreed offerings but also by the quality of its design
and execution that equals the best of international architecture." Across the street, two new museums share a similar concept and
composition that follows traditional feng shui principles and the vernacular architecture of the region. The Shunde Science and
Technology Museum is visually formed by seven solid slabs rotating around a glass drum which is linked to the roof to form a
greenhouse. At the center is a capsule-like atrium with a cascade of escalators. The arts center completed in 2005 and library was
completed in 2006; the museums are under construction and scheduled for completion in 2009.
(http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com)
The library, together with a performing arts center and two museums, forms the new cultural center of Shunde, a fast-growing
district with a population of about 1 million located in Foshan in the Pearl Delta Region. Standing on the previously context-free
district center, the library and its neighbors adopted bold geometries. Functionality and meeting the tight budget were the major
concerns in design, resulting in a simple rectilinear form that was easy and cheap to build. Free of odd shapes, the plan allowed for
flexibility of layout. The “no-frills” approach turned functional elements—like the reading booths and the staircase—into design
features. Additionally, climatically responsive facades minimized energy consumption while careful planning and a clear segregation
of day and night zones cut management costs. The library, apart from serving the community as a district main library, also houses
two exhibition halls on its lower floors, which take up more than a quarter of the total gross floor area. Formed by colonnades of
reading booths, the lobby was designed to resemble a gigantic bookcase that orients visitors to the correct sections of the library,
while reading areas are punctuated with gardens and courtyards. The theme of bamboo (in Chinese ideology the scholar of nature)
was reflected in the design of the elevation and choice of materials. The interior of the library follows the Chinese idiom (bright
windows and tidy furniture), which defines the ideal study environment for Chinese readers. Except for the west side for energy
reasons, the all-glass facades with considerable shading from the projecting features allow a flexible layout of the reading spaces
while a minimalist interior provides visitors with a neat and harmonious environment for reading and study. (P & T)
An award-winning new cultural centre complex is underway in the Shunde district in Foshan City, southeast China. Commissioned
by the Shunde Shi New City Development Centre, a local government body, the complex includes a performing arts centre, library,
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