Library

Featuring the time-honored rice-growing farmland, the Tanjiawan in Wuzhen is regarded as one of the Majiabang cultural sites in the early Neolithic Age in the Taihu Basin on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. With the emergence of Internet, people’s lives have been inundated with multifarious media messages, thus many cultural heritages have be passed into silence gradually. Modern media, as a new technology for cultural inheritance, seems unable to make up for some spiritual demands of people due to the loss of nature in cultural continuity. The hustle and bustle of the city and the increasingly-severe ecological environment trigger people’s impulsion of returning to the primitive life.

The library site on a complex mountainous site, propagated by terraced paddy fields. The minimal and holistic form of the building distinguishes itself from the other existing scattered and small-scale buildings on the campus.

This is not just a library, not just a 83-year-old bathhouse monument, not just a cultural venue. Down the corridor, with lights filling upwards and incoming scent of books, one can let go of the chaotic outdoors and enjoy being bathed in spirits and knowledge. 

This is not just a library, not just a 83-year-old bathhouse monument, not just a cultural venue. Down the corridor, with lights filling upwards and incoming scent of books, one can let go of the chaotic outdoors and enjoy being bathed in spirits and knowledge. 

The client’s aspiration was to provide a library as an additional amenity for his project in this small double height space carved out of the parking lot. The client’s vision, his good intent and the budgetary constraints became the under lining factors for our line of thought. Our effort was to address the spatial attributes and create a multi-functional reading space. We wanted this space to be equally interesting for adults as well as kids. Idea of promoting reading and sharing knowledge was seen as an integral aspect of our design thinking. 

Concept and Organization. It is a contextual and yet spectacular signature building that together with the proposed square creates a new identity and an initiation for further development in Nord-Odal. It is the new living-room for Sand´s inhabitants, the main gathering space with a low threshold for participation. It brings together literature, knowledge, economy, people, tradition, and history under one single roof. A holistic space with several functions that enhances a feeling of ownership for its users. Samling also connects the main street with the park and church on the other side at the same time that it connects to the courtyard of the municipality on the back. This layout, together with the inviting and transparent main entrance, makes it an obvious urban passage. An indoor street through the library’s main room that increases life in the building, an invitation to unintentional visits, meet people, bring a newspaper or book, or have a short coffee break. 

The Predikherenklooster is a more than impressive building. The baroque monastery was built starting in 1650 and was deconsecrated in the 18th century. In the 19th and 20th centuries it was mainly used for military purposes and has been abandoned since 1975. We developed our design with respect for the particular characteristics of the existing edifice. The programming, the spatial design, our concept for the restoration as well as the design of the technical installations, and all structural interventions are intended to preserve and reinforce these characteristics. The building has a clear structure consisting of an outer ring consisting of broad multifunctional rooms, an inner ring (the cloister), the courtyard, the attic and the church. Over the years the structure has been entirely preserved and can be experienced everywhere in the building.

The township chose a strategic location for the media library : in the city center, a few meters away from the city-hall and the church, across the street form the music conservatory built in the 1990s.