The Million Booked Wall of China opens its doors in Tianjan

One of our favourite Dutch designer firms, MVRDV has gone and knocked the book out of the park with its new Tianjan library in China. Working in collaboration with the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI) this future-world like learning space concept is based around a “mirrored, spherical auditorium.”

Located in the Binhai Cultural District of Tianjin, China and dubbed “The Eye of Binhai” the five-story library covers 34,000 square metres and can hold up to 1.2 million books.

Looking like a mashup of Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts & Science L’Hemisferic, is composed of three key areas. The Watch Zone (blue) allows visitors to sit and stare, while the Think Zone let’s patrons do the thinking. The Interact Zone allows the people the chance to chat em up.

According to MVRDV “the library (one part of a larger cultural complex masterplan) bases itself around a spherical auditorium which, coupled with the main atrium, forms an eye that acts as a focal point for the interior space,” claims the Dutch design firm. “Terraced bookshelves echo the sphere throughout the atrium, leading users up into the heart of the library, before continuing around the building as louvers.”

The project took three years to complete, the library features a reading area on the ground floor, lounge areas in the middle sections and offices, meeting spaces, and computer/audio rooms at the top.

Video showing the live space in action can be seen here

Source. MVRDV
All photos (c) Ossip van Duivenbode

Angus Mackenzie

Canadian born automotive & architectural photographer. elemente magazine was born in 2006 as a Canadian national design publication . It remains as an online entity.

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